There are so many fun games from around the world, and so many countries have their own version of a passing game. Did you ever play a passing game as a child? Even if you don’t remember, chances are you did!
Passing games are present in almost all cultures and usually accompanied by a melody while passing a ball, a stone, a stick, a button or any found object. Participating in a passing game allows children of all ages to have fun and learn a game from a different culture while practicing skills such as tracking, coordination, singing, steady beat and concentration.
Here are three passing games from around the world with music.
1) Obwisana. This circle game is from Ghana and it involves passing one or more rocks around the circle while singing:
Obwisana sa nana
Obwisana sa
Obwisana sa nana
Obwisana sa
Check out this YouTube video for a nice demonstration!
2) Acitron. This circle game is from Mexico and it also involves passing a stone around the circle. Here are the nonsense words to the song:
Acitron de un fandango sango sango
Sabare sabare que va cantando con su triki triki tran
If you want to learn the song, check out this video!
3) Button You Must Wander. This is a traditional American game. The trick with this game is to be very sneaky while passing the button from hand to hand to fool the child in the middle whose turn is to guess who is holding the button at the end of the song. The lyrics are as follows:
Button you must wander, wander, wander,
Button you must wander far away.
Bright eyes will find you. Sharp eyes will find you.
Button you must wander everywhere.
Here is the link to a YouTube video of the song:
There are many more passing games around the world, but I hope this will get you started and maybe you can make up your very own passing game!
Looking for more games from around the world? Then check out these!
