{"id":156,"date":"2009-07-09T16:14:58","date_gmt":"2009-07-09T20:14:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/?p=156"},"modified":"2009-07-09T16:14:58","modified_gmt":"2009-07-09T20:14:58","slug":"traditional-children%e2%80%99s-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/traditional-children%e2%80%99s-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Traditional children\u2019s games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here in Italy the schools are closed for the summer holidays, and children are at home playing. A few days ago I saw a small group of bambini <\/strong>(young children) aged around\u00a02 to 8 playing an old traditional playground game: Il Girotondo<\/strong> (the equivalent of Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses). I felt a touch of\u00a0nostalgia as\u00a0many happy memories came back to me,\u00a0and at the same time I was pleased to see that in this era of electronic virtual entertainment kids are still playing these traditional playground games which have been passed\u00a0down for generations. I\u00a0felt inspired\u00a0to write\u00a0about some of my old childhood favorites, and decided to do a bit of research on the Internet to try and find out about\u00a0their history and origins, but I couldn\u2019t find anything definitive.\u00a0One interesting fact that did emerge however\u00a0is that these games are all part of a very old oral tradition, and are common all over Italy.\u00a0The same games can be\u00a0found\u00a0from Friuli Venezia Giulia in the very north down to Sicilia in the south, with a few minor\u00a0variations and spelling adaptations.<\/span><\/p>\n

In keeping with\u00a0tradition I\u00a0would like to pass on to you three of my giochi preferiti<\/strong> (favorite games). The first is the\u00a0aforementioned\u00a0Il Girotondo<\/strong>, <\/strong>in which\u00a0the children make a ring by holding hands and\u00a0walking in a circle while\u00a0chanting this short rhyme, at the end of\u00a0which they\u00a0throw themselves down onto the\u00a0ground\u00a0with great hilarity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Giro girotondo<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Casca il mondo<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Casca la Terra<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tutti giu\u2019 per terra!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Turn round and round \/ the world falls down \/ the Earth falls down\u00a0\/ everybody down on the ground!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

La bella lavanderina<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another popular \u201cring-a-ring-a-roses\u201d type game, but the attraction of\u00a0this one\u00a0is that it gives the children the possibility to express their acting abilities! In\u00a0this game,\u00a0while the children fanno il girotondo<\/strong> (make a ring) and sing the nursery rhyme, one child is chosen to be la lavanderina <\/strong>(the little washerwoman), and stands in the center of the ring acting out the \u2018script\u2019 of the rhyme.\u00a0When the rhyme is finished\u00a0the bambino<\/strong> or bambina<\/strong> chooses another child from the ring and they swap places.<\/span><\/p>\n

La bella lavanderina<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

che lava i fazzoletti<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

per i poveretti<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

della citta\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

fai un salto<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

fanne un altro<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

fai la giravolta<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

falla un\u2019altra volta<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

guarda in su<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

guarda in giu’<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

dai un bacio a chi vuoi tu!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The pretty little washerwoman \/ who washes the handkerchiefs \/ for the poor people \/ of the town \/\u00a0make a jump \/ make another one \/ twirl around \/ do it again \/ look up \/ look down \/ give a kiss to whom you want!<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quante belle figlie, Madama Dore\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

You\u00a0will recognize\u00a0the tune\u00a0from this very old game\u00a0if you listen to\u00a0Ottorino Respighi\u2019s Pini di Villa Borghese <\/strong>(Pines of Villa Borghese), which is\u00a0the first scene of his evocative symphonic poem Pini di Roma <\/strong>(Pines of Rome). In this\u00a0descriptive scene the composer wanted to represent children playing in the park of Villa Borghese.\u00a0The game itself\u00a0can be played in different ways and has many variations in the text. I\u2019m going to describe the one I used to play as a child. The children create two rows facing each other, each row\u00a0has their\u00a0arms interlocked. One row is the king\u2019s party, and the other one is Madama Dore\u2019s party, and\u00a0they each take it in turns to sing\u00a0a line of the rhyme. The king\u2019s party begins, followed by Madama Dore\u2019s, as if they are having a conversation.\u00a0The row that is singing\u00a0steps forward and backward as they sing. At the end of the song the king\u2019s party chooses the most beautiful daughter from Madama Dore\u2019s party.\u00a0This is repeated until all the children from Madama Dore\u2019s row have been chosen except one, who is Madama Dore\u2019 herself. To illustrate how the \u2018conversation\u2019 works I have highlighted the king\u2019s party in\u00a0maroon and Madama Dore\u2019s in green:<\/span><\/p>\n

– Oh quante belle figlie, Madama Dor\u00e9,
\noh quante belle figlie.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/div>\n
<\/strong><\/div>\n

<\/strong>Oh, how many beautiful daughters, Madame Dore\u2019, how many beautiful daughters. \/ They are beautiful and I keep them for myself, King\u2019s Squire, they are beautiful and I keep them for myself. \/ The King would like one of them, Madame Dore\u2019, the King would like one of them. \/ What does he want to do\u00a0with her, King\u2019s Squire, what does he want to do\u00a0with her? \/ He wants to give her a husband, Madame Dore\u2019, he wants to give her a husband. \/ Whom would he marry her to, King\u2019s Squire, whom would he marry her to? \/ To the Prince of Spain, Madame Dore\u2019, to the Prince of Spain. \/ And how would he dress her, King\u2019s Squire, how would he dress her? \/ He would dress her with roses and violets, Madame Dore\u2019, he would dress her with roses and violets. \/ Take the most beautiful one, King\u2019s Squire, take the most beautiful one.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Son belle e me le tengo, Scudiero del re,
\nson belle e me le tengo.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Il re ne vorrebbe una, Madama Dor\u00e9,
\nil re ne vorrebbe una.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Che cosa ne vuol fare, Scudiero del re,
\nche cosa ne vuol fare ?<\/span><\/p>\n

– La vuole maritare, Madama Dor\u00e9,
\nla vuole maritare.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Con chi la mariterebbe, Scudiero del re,
\ncon chi la mariterebbe?<\/span><\/p>\n

– Col principe di Spagna, Madama Dor\u00e9,
\ncol principe di Spagna.<\/span><\/p>\n

– E come la vestirebbe, Scudiero del re,
\ne come la vestirebbe?<\/span><\/p>\n

– Di rose e di viole, Madama Dor\u00e9,
\ndi rose e di viole.<\/span><\/p>\n

– Prendete la pi\u00f9 bella, Scudiero del re,
\nprendete la pi\u00f9 bella.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

As children, when\u00a0we used to play this game we often \u2018modernized\u2019 it by substituting the \u2018Prince of Spain\u2019 with famous actors and singers who were popular at that time.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here in Italy the schools are closed for the summer holidays, and children are at home playing. A few days ago I saw a small group of bambini (young children) aged around\u00a02 to 8 playing an old traditional playground game: Il Girotondo (the equivalent of Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses). I felt a touch of\u00a0nostalgia as\u00a0many happy memories came…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[702,762],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","tag-girotondo","tag-la-bella-lavanderina"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/italian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}