hopscotch

Cuba 2002, girls hopscotch.

Hopscotch is a children's game which can be played with several players or alone. Hopscotch is often played on playgrounds by children.

Court and rules

Modern schoolyard court; designs vary.

Hopscotch Courts, c. 1900.[1]
English	English (simple)	American

The court (or course)

To play hopscotch, a course is first laid out on the ground. Depending on the available surface, the course is either scratched out in dirt, or drawn with chalk on pavement. Designs vary, but the course is usually composed of a series of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral squares. Traditionally the course ends with a "safe" or "home" base in which the player may turn before completing the reverse trip. The home base may be a square, a rectangle, or a semicircle. The squares are then numbered in the sequence in which they are to be hopped.

Playing the game

The first player tosses the marker (typically a stone, coin or bean bag) into the first square. The marker must land completely within the designated square and without touching a line or bouncing out. The player then hops through the course, skipping the square with the marker in it. Single squares must be hopped on one foot. For the first single square, either foot may be used. Side by side squares are straddled, with the left foot landing in the left square, and the right foot landing in the right square. Optional squares marked "Safe", "Home", or "Rest" are neutral squares, and may be hopped through in any manner without penalty.

Upon successfully completing the sequence, the player continues the turn by tossing the marker into square number two, and repeating the pattern.

If while hopping through the court in either direction the player steps on a line, misses a square, or loses balance, the turn ends. Players begin their turns where they last left off. The first player to complete one course for every numbered square on the court wins the game.

Although the marker is most often picked up during the game, historically, in the boy's game, the marker was kicked sequentially back through the course on the return trip and then kicked out.

Origin

A hopscotch game with a traditional magpie rhyme in Morecambe, England

Hopscotch was invented by the Romans, probably in Britain during the early Empire. It was initially designed as a training regimen for Roman foot soldiers who ran the course in full armor and field packs, as it was thought this would improve their footwork.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology

The word "hopscotch" is a compound of "hop" (short jump) and "scotch" (scratched line). Called "scotch-hoppers", the term dates back at least to 1677.^[2]

However, "hop" and "skoč" (the same pronunciation as "scotch") also mean mean "jump" in Czech (also in Polish "skocz"). But the game itself is called panák (figure) in Czech.^{[citation needed]}

Variants

There are many other forms of hopscotch played across the globe.^[3] In Spain is called Rayuela. In Latin America, golosa. In Russian it is known as классики (diminutive for the word meaning classrooms). In Poland, it is called klasy, meaning classes. In Italy it is called campana (meaning bell), or mondo (meaning world). In Croatia it is called školica, meaning little school. In Malaysia the most popular variant is called tengteng. In Mexico, it is called bebeleche (mamaleche) meaning drink milk or avioncito meaning little plane ("probably because of the shape"). In Romania the game is called şotron and is widely played by children all over the country. In Brazil it is called amarelinha. The name evolved from marelle, the French name for the game, but was identified to the radical amarelo (yellow) and its diminutive in -inho/a.. In breton, the name is reg or delech.

Laylay

A hopscotch game in Boston, USA

The game's generic name in Persian (Farsi) is Laylay. The most common form of Laylay in Iran resembles the older Western types and uses six or more (always an even number) side-by-side squares successively (vertically) numbered. The player uses a peg or a flat stone that the player must kick to the next square as the player is hopping. If either the stone or a player's foot lands on a line, the player forfeits the game (or loses a turn). Although somewhat less common, the contemporary Western type is also played.

Escargot

A French variant of hopscotch is known as Escargot (snail) or "La Marelle Ronde" (round hopscotch). It is played on a spiral course. Players must hop on one foot to the center of the spiral and back out again. A player marks one square with his or her initials, and from then on may place two feet in that square, while all other players must hop over it. The game ends when all squares are marked or no one can reach the center, and the winner is the player who "owns" the most squares.

Himmel und Hölle

In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland the game is called Himmel und Hölle (Heaven and Hell) although there are also some other names used, depending on the region. The square below 1 or the 1 itself are called Erde (Earth) while the second to last square is the Hölle (Hell) and the last one is Himmel (Heaven). The first player throws a small stone into the first square and then jumps to the square and must kick the stone to the next square and so on, however, the stone or the player cannot stop in Hell so they try to skip that square.

Puž

In Bosnia this is a well known children's game called Puž (Snail in English)^[3]

Kith- Kith

In India, hopscotch is also called kith- kith or Ekhat-Dukhat (meaning one two houses) in the Hindi-speaking areas and chikkid-billa in Andhra Pradesh (Telugu-speaking state), chikkid meaning the chalk borders and billa meaning the Coin/ marker. It has similar principles in that players must hop on one foot and must throw the marker in the right square. This mostly is a girls' game in India, though some boys play them too.

Potsy

Hopscotch was/is called Potsy in New York City. [1]

Amarelinha

In the Brazil this game is called Amarelinha.

World Record

The current Guiness Book of World Records holder for the fastest hopscotch game is Olympic gold-medalist Dan O'Brien, at 1 minute and 23 seconds. ^[4]

References

Bibliography

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article hop-scotch.

• Beard, D.C. The Outdoor Handy Book: For the Playground, Field, and Forest. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons (1907).
• Skeat, Walter W. Notes on English Etymology: Chiefly Reprinted from the Transactions of the Philological Society. Oxford: The Clarendon Press (1901).

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hopscotch

• Hopscotch