Interesting folk games in Tet season

1. Danh dao - Playing at chucking coins

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This is a popular game for children and adults in Vietnamese villages.

During the Lunar New Year, children can spend some of their lucky money given by adults to play folk games, especially danh dao.

People can play the game on the ground. Based on the regulations, players have to make holes on the ground and the sizes of the holes can vary depending on the levels of the game.

Players have to stand at the line to throw coins to their holes and win all the coins if the coins find their way into the holes.

2. Danh du – swinging

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People will choose large and tall bamboo trees and plant them into the ground to build a swing.

Each swinging place is made from four to six large bamboo trees and suitable for a single player or a duo.

Normally, a pair comprising a girl and a boy will play the game together as one pushes the bamboo swing while the other flexes his or her legs.

3. Wrestling

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Wrestling is held during Lunar New Year holiday and major festivals in villages to nurture talent and encourage physical activity among local young men.

Winners will get prize money, and a tray or pot made from bronze.

Those who are able to make their rivals fall backwards or lift their rivals off the ground will win.

It requires not only physical fitness but also cleverness of athletes.

4. Tug-of-war

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The traditional folk game is held at festivals and community events in the Red River Delta and the north-central region, especially Vinh Phuc, Bac Ninh and Hanoi, to highlight the teamwork spirit and pray for good weather and good harvest.

In 2015, UNESCO acknowledged the tug-of-war of Vietnam as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity, together with Cambodia, South Korea and the Philippines.

This is the first multinational heritage also shared by Vietnam.

5. Human chess

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The game features 16 men and 16 women as pieces on the chess board.

The audience also sees traditional art forms in the game seen through dance moves and folk poems.

6. Catching eel in a jar

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There are five to seven jars set up on a temple’s yard and each jar contains an eel.

the game begins, a pair of players will hold their two hands around their back while the other two hands will be put into a jar to catch the eel.

The players often catch their hands, not the eel. Once the eel is caught, the two players will hold it up to show their victory.

7. Danh phet – playing balls with bamboo sticks

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The game is played at spring festivals in northern provinces.

Players in two groups hold a bamboo stick which is one meter long to beat a phet (a wooden ball painted in red to represent the sun) into the rival team’s hole.

It is said that the game originated from the tradition of worshipping the sun.

8. Breaking the earthenware pot

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The game is quite popular in villages in the north of Vietnam.

It is usually held in a temple’s yard or a spacious area.

Earthenware pots are hung on a horizontal rope.

Blindfolded players stand at a line 3 to 5 meters from the rope and use a stick to break an earthenware pot.

There is a paper note inside the pot indicating a particular prize.

9. Walking on a bamboo stick

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The game requires players to walk on a bamboo stick which is linked by a rope between a high ground and a pole

10. Cockfighting

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The game is popular in different parts of Vietnam. People have to choose carefully the breeds and shapes of roosters and train them for battles.

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