Hopscotch Heaven

Tell me you played Hopscotch as a kid; please tell me every kid in the world played it. I wonder how far the game has travelled and I wonder if there is variance to the rules? Well my fun time internet search on the things I blog about has once again turned up trumps, letting me know that Hopscotch was originally a form of Roman military training. Dressed in armour, the soldiers would improve footwork over a 100 foot course. Children imitated the exercise and it made itself known throughout Europe across the centuries.  Kids in Columbia and Argentina play Rayuela and in Indonesia its Yohanes Lie, in France it's Marelles, Germany has Templehupfen, the Netherlands play Hinklebaan, India has Ekaria Dukaria and Vietnam plays Pico. It appears some games require you to throw a stone or marker to indicate where to hop to and other versions require only hopping but universally you are not allowed to land on the lines. Those rules were translated over into the 4 Square we played at school, replacing hopping with ball bouncing and from there we went on to play Netball and so on and so forth. I loved playing Hopscotch and I'm tickled pink to know its history.

SUGARBEE XX   23/01/13