Fun games and contests for Shrovetide. Themed entertainment for adults and children, indoors and outdoors. How to organize a fun party for everyone?
Shrovetide games are not just a fun way to say goodbye to a hateful Winter. They contain echoes of the ritual ceremonies of the ancient Slavs, approximately on the same crucial days between the seasons, who welcomed the Sun (hence the tradition of baking round, ruddy "suns") and called Spring to visit. And although the past centuries have not left stone unturned from the former meaning of the Pancake Week, and Epiphany tied the Cheese Week to the church calendar, today we, like ancestors, sincerely rejoice at the holiday, we gobble up lush pancakes and play noisily, heartily. Shrovetide has come!
Party organization rules
It is no secret that folk games on Shrovetide were sometimes rude. Remember at least the fistfights "wall to wall", after which many had to treat black eyes and set their noses turned to the side! It is characteristic that even before the revolution they tried to prohibit tough fun more than once, but they did not manage to cope with it: the desire of the Russian men, who dispersed at the end of the Pancake Week, was very great, to show their prowess, and to knead the bones for themselves and the enemy.
In our time, battles of one "end" of the city against the other, fortunately, are not practiced. But this does not mean that the naughty good fellows (and the girls are red, by the way, too, it is not for nothing that we live in the age of emancipation) will not injure each other of varying severity. Therefore, take care to nullify possible risks.
How to organize a holiday and not injure anyone:
- There should be no heavy objects among the shells for games. Even a bag of straw can cause painful bruises if you hit it heartily! Would you like to have a comic fight on a log? Either make sure that the shells are not too tight, or replace them with old, half-empty down pillows, if you find such a rarity. It is even safer to use long balloons for battle, especially when it comes to children and teenagers.
- The pillar with gifts is a traditional Shrovetide fun - you don't need to add water to it. So you run the risk of being left without a winner, and reward the audience with bruises and bumps in memory of unsuccessful attempts to get to the hotel.
- It is advisable not to allow drunk people and young ladies in long skirts to jump over fires.
- For running in bags, choose a fabric that is rough and non-slip in the snow.
- A well-organized holiday requires a clear division of responsibilities. No matter how dizzy the atmosphere of general fun, no matter how much you want to join it, relaxing and letting everything go along the knurled path, remember that such events should always have an organizer (or preferably several) who keeps a sober head even in the midst of taking a snow fortress and burning effigy of Maslenitsa. Sober - in every sense.
Outdoor games during Shrovetide
One of the main conditions that apply to games on the street on Shrovetide: they must be as mobile as possible so as not to let the participants freeze. Fortunately, the old folk amusements fully comply with this requirement, so you will only have to slightly modernize them:
- Wall to wall … A harmless but addicting game can become a new variation on the theme of hard fun. Two opposing teams in two rows line up against each other on a wide area with previously trampled snow. Participants in each group clasp their elbows tightly to form a chain, and then, at a signal, both teams step on each other. It is forbidden to open hands, punch and kick - too. To break through the enemy's defenses should be done exclusively by pressure. The winner is the team that manages to push the enemy out of bounds or breach his defense - that is, to break the chain.
- Horse fight … Participants are divided into pairs "horse-rider". If boys and girls play, a guy becomes a horse, according to tradition and logic, since he will have to keep his rider on his back for a long time. Well, as for riders it is better to choose light miniature young ladies so that the "horses" do not have to strain. At a signal from the leader, the "riders" begin to fight, trying to push each other "out of the saddle." The couple that will last the longest is the winner.
You can also organize fun relay races. This fun has so many options that it can serve as an excellent Shrovetide game for adults and children. It all depends on the conditions set to the participants.
Choose according to your taste:
- Each of the players must run, or rather jump from point A to B, putting their feet into the bag;
- You need to drive the entire route in a children's sleigh backwards, pushing off the snow with your feet or ski poles;
- Relay participants are given a frying pan with a pancake, and it must not only be carried to the end of the track safe and sound, but also tossed on the way, as the hostesses do during baking;
- Players of the same team need to stand in pairs back to back, grapple with their elbows and, without opening their hands, limp to the finish line;
- Again, the method for the doubles race - the participants are tied together with the left and right legs and sent them on the road;
- Together, you can not only run, but also ride when one of the players drags his partner on the ice, trying not to knock down obstacles placed on the way - plastic bottles with colored water, brooms stuck into a snowdrift, buckets;
- For a mass race of two teams, the players of each group need to line up in single file, grab the person in front of the belt and do not open their hands until the entire track has been overcome.
Note! Interesting Shrovetide games for adults and adolescents will be the already mentioned jumps over the fire, climbing a pole for gifts, pillow battles, during which fighters stand on a fallen log or one leg, tug-of-war, throwing snowballs at the target.
Homemade fun on Shrovetide
If the weather is not conducive to fun, or for some other reason you had to celebrate the holiday at home, this does not mean that it was not a success. There are many ways to have a good time and within four walls.
Quests, a newfangled hobby, have been occupying an honorable place among contests and games for Shrovetide for several years already: they very easily fit into the general playful mood of the holiday. Especially with such and such a rich theme!
An example scenario might look like this:
- Monday-Meeting … Teams are given a task: how to meet Shrovetide and list 7 items, one way or another related to it. Comic and resourceful answers are welcome, for example: "Napkins - because on Shrovetide everyone eats pancakes and wipes their mouths" or "Scales, because everyone will need them after the holiday."
- Tuesday Flirt … Since in Russia on this day the guys tried in every possible way to attract the attention of the girls, and they willingly responded to flirting and tried to dress up one another more beautifully, the participants of the competition will have to bring beauty to the table. True, the participants in the game will not dress themselves, but Shrovetide. Players are divided into 2 or more teams. Each is given a set of various items of clothing: scarves, beads, felt boots, skirts, vests, mittens - the main thing is that all this is bright and easy to put on. Then each team chooses Shrovetide and begins to dress it up for speed. Whose "scarecrow" in the end turns out to be the most elegant and funny, he won. In the competition for adults or teenagers, you can use cosmetics to make the painted "Maslenitsa" look even more elegant. But it's better not to take risks with kids, otherwise the dispersed young artists in a hurry can please their model with a brush in the eye and cause tears instead of laughter.
- Wednesday Gourmet … Without a doubt, the pancake contests are not only one of the most fun, but also the most delicious of the indoor Pancake games. For the competition, you will need 2 stacks of ready-made thin pancakes and several bowls with fillings: cheese, ham, caviar, pickles, fruits, jam, etc. Players are divided into 2 teams, get their own set of products and wrap the fillings in pancakes at speed. Whoever coped with the task first, did not break the pancakes in the confusion or came up with the most delicious filling is the winner.
- Thursday-Revelry … The real fun begins! Offer the players to go through the relay race, and since there will not be enough places to properly walk in the conditions of even the largest apartment, compensate for the lack of track length by the difficulty of passing. Let the participants of each team split into pairs, in which one will "run" to the set mark on his hands, and the other will hold his legs. Or they will try to skip the measured distance on one leg. Or, while running, they carry an egg in a spoon in front of them (boiled, otherwise you will be tortured to wash the floor!).
- Friday-Mother-in-law evenings … And pancakes again! This time, the competitors alternately approach the table with pancakes prepared on Wednesday-Lakomka, pick up a delicious envelope with filling and try to bite off the largest piece of it. While they are chewing, they pronounce any adjective that characterizes pancakes (delicious, fluffy, ruddy), Shrovetide (merry, riotous, noisy), spring (warm, early, sunny). Since Friday is called Mother-in-law's evenings, all married men come up with adjectives during the game, addressed to their beloved mother-in-law.
- Saturday-Zolovkin's gatherings … The sister-in-law, the husband's sister, also wants to be beautiful, so you need to help her to put herself in order, namely, to braid a braid-girlish beauty. To complete the task, all players are divided into groups of 4 people and receive at their disposal 3 long (about 2-3 m) ribbons, tied at one end by a knot. One person from the group, usually a girl, becomes motionless, holding the knot on the back of the head with his hand, and the other three, grasping the free ends of the ribbons, begin to braid the braid. Believe me, they will have to work hard to figure out who to move and where! Whose braid turns out neater and longer, he won.
- Forgiveness Sunday … In the end, it is worth picking up a quieter task in order to calm down the noisy revelers. Play with them in the "Question-answer" on the Shrovetide theme: what the pancake (sun) symbolizes, from what flour pancakes are baked (wheat, rye, oatmeal, rice, buckwheat), what kind of pancakes are (thin, fluffy, delicate, with a bake, with filling), what is the first pancake (lumpy), which pancakes cannot be eaten (pancakes on a barbell), which of the heroes of Russian fairy tales said: “Here's a pancake, but don’t bark” (Evil Stepmother from the fairy tale “Frost”), but in what poem "Crocodile stewed the blue sea with pies and pancakes, and dried mushrooms" (Chukovsky's poem "Confusion"), what is common among French crepes, American pancakes, Dutch pannekokens, Scandinavian lefse and Indian DOS (all these are pancakes).
Note! It is easy to guess that during the existence of the Maslenitsa holiday, a great many games with pancakes were invented. If you want to make the action more fun, consider this option: one of the players is tied behind his back, and the other - eyes, after which the "blind" must randomly feed the "armless". As soon as the first pancake is eaten, a new pair takes the place of the coped with the task, and the competition continues until all team members visit the table. Whose group finishes first, he won.
Taking the tips collected above as a basis, you can write your own script for Shrovetide with games and contests. And do not forget to take stock at the end of the quest and give out comic prizes.
Fun for the little ones on Maslenitsa
If both adults and adolescents can participate in the entertainment described above, then the Shrovetide games for children of primary school and kindergarten age should be as peaceful as possible (pushing each other off the playground or pulling the rope, the kids can get too carried away), but no less exciting:
- Snow maze … If you are ready to get down to business with a twinkle, you have 3-4 assistants, and the winter in your region turned out to be snowy, arm yourself with shovels and dig a real maze with walls at least 1 m high. If there are interruptions with snowdrifts and manpower, it will be enough to find an ankle-high area with untouched virgin snow and trample a maze on it. The main thing is to download a suitable scheme from the Internet, apply the markup and sweat for an hour. The kids will surely enjoy running along the snowy paths.
- Fishing vice versa … What is a Russian winter without sledding ?! Find a place with a gentle long slope and fill a hill on it, and then stick "fishing rods" with Christmas tree decorations, gingerbread cookies and other small souvenirs tied to them on threads on the sides of the track. It is important to make the threads thin enough so that the child, rolling down the hill, can rip them off on the fly, and the "fishing rods" - light, so that any of the sticks does not hurt the "fisherman", even if it falls on his head in the process of catching.
- Treasure Island … To arrange a real treasure hunt, sweets and souvenirs are wrapped in plastic bags and buried in the snow in a limited area. And then you can invite the kids to arm themselves with sticks-probes and go in search of gifts from Santa Claus or organize a game according to the "hot-cold" scenario. If the business takes place on the playground or in the park, small tips in the form of drops of paint or pieces of plasticine placed on trees, swings, benches, etc. will make it easier for the kids. Just do not forget to warn the little ones exactly how Santa Claus marked his treasures.
- Snow snake … This fun fun is reminiscent of the Shrovetide round dance, but has a couple of advantages. Firstly, it does not need to memorize nursery rhymes that not everyone likes, and secondly, it is more dynamic. Among the children, the most lively and active child is chosen, who becomes the "head" of the snake (at first one of the organizers can take on this role), and the rest line up behind him, holding hands. The "head" quickly moves around the playground, goes around trees in a circle, dives under low-growing branches, and the rest must exactly follow its route without breaking hands.
- Bear dances … One of the organizers, depicting a bear, shows a variety of dance moves, and participants should try to repeat them without mistakes. When such contests are organized for adults, those who have coped with the task worse than others gradually drop out of the competition. But since we are talking about games for toddlers, it is better to announce after 5-7 minutes of dancing that everyone has done it and give out small prizes. Let every participant have a Shrovetide mood. And do not forget to choose perky dance music for this competition!
- Figure competition … This game resembles drawing "snow angels" popular in the United States. Participants need to find a site, abundantly covered with snow, and fall into a snowdrift with their backs, arms spread wide, and then rise so as not to disturb the resulting drawing. The player with the most accurate print is declared the winner.
Good options for children to play on the street on Shrovetide will be a snowman sculpting competition, decorating a Shrovetide scarecrow, throwing snowballs at targets, a relay race with bright flags collected from snow, and casting Christmas tree toys from ice. For the last fun, you will need molds, water tinted with watercolors or food dyes, and ropes 15 centimeters long. Before the start of the holiday, let the children pour water into the molds, lower the end of a looped rope into it and leave it to freeze. After 1-1, 5 hours, the ice toys will only have to be removed from the molds.
Note! When choosing a site, you must be sure that stones and iron bars do not stick out of the ground under the snow.
What games to hold on Shrovetide - watch the video:
Shrovetide week, and especially its Sunday, traditionally needs to be spent intensely and excitingly. Otherwise, the next 12 months you will not see fun! So do not sit at home: call your friends, come up with funny tasks for each other, organize games, and most importantly, get as much pleasure from what is happening as possible. Then the last cold weather will be of no concern to you, and the winter depression will disappear like smoke.
