A long time ago, children in Greece used to gather out on the streets or in parks and play games. Games that involved physical play and imagination. Nowadays, TV and video games have taken up most of children’s lives, however, a trend for traditional Greek games seems to attract more and more children who wish to learn how to play their parents’ and grandparents’ games.
Apples: In this game children are divided into two groups. Two players of one group stand opposite one another and the players of the other group gather between them. The two players throw a ball at each other trying to hit one of the children of the rival group. If the ball hits a player then they get “burned” and exit the game. However, if a player catches the ball, he wins an “apple.” The goal of this game is to get as many “apples” as possible. Each “apple” gives the player an extra “life” he can use in case he gets “burned.”
Abariza: The game is played by two groups. Each group draws on the ground an “abariza“, a 3-4 diameter circle and a square used as a “prison.” Between the two “abarizas“ there is a distance of 20-40 meters. A random player of the first team starts running between the two “abarizas“ and a player of the other team tries to catch him and put him in “prison.” The winner is the team that manages to imprison all the opponents.
Broken telephone: The children are sitting next to each other in a row. The first child quickly says a word in the ear of the second, the second to the third, and so it goes until the word reaches the last child of the row. The latter has to say the correct word out loud so that the game continues with a new word.
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