Traditional games of Easter in Cyprus

Traditional games of Easter in Cyprus By Andreas Hadjichristou, Giannis Hadjitheodoulou, Andreas Loukatzie, Kalia Argyrou, Xenofon Argyrou, Christos Kapitanis

Egg tapping!!! Danger…only use cooked eggs!!! • First to play this game you have to prepare the eggs. You need to use hard boiled eggs! When you do this you are ready to play the game. The rules are simple. The first player has to hit the other player’s egg. If the first player cracks the other’s egg that means that he is the winner or the second player then has a go!.

Rock lifting! This is ONLY for the strong and mighty!! • This is a traditional game played on Easter Sunday and Monday after Easter in Cyprus. The aim is to lift a heavy rock and hold it over the head with the arms stretched. • WOW!! You really need strong muscles

Egg race • This traditional egg-and-spoon race is also played on Easter Sunday or Easter Monday. The participants must balance an egg or similarly shaped item on a spoon and race with it to the finishing line!! Wethink it is best if you do NOT USE real eggs

Skatoulika This is a very popular game in Cyprus!! Stones are mounted in a stack one above the other, not less than 5. One person is on as “skatoulieris" and is responsible for the stones. He stands on a line right behind the stacked stones. The other children stand opposite ‘skatoulieris’atsome distance (behind a line). They take a stone and take turns trying to knock down the stack of stones!! Whoever misses goes and stands near the place where the stone falls. Each player keeps having a go until one knocks over the stack of stones and he is the winner.

‘ziziros’ [Cicada] One very traditional game played at Easter in Cyprus is ‘ziziros’.This traditional game is played on Easter Sunday and the day after. One person has to cover his eyes while one of the group of players behind him hits him on the back, sometimes softly , sometimes hard….very hard!! Immediately after the hit rest of the players make a "zzzz" sound like a cicada (ziziros) and wave a finger in circles, so as to confuse the unlucky one who is hit. The person who is hit has to guess who hit him and if he is correct the person who hit him takes his place.

This is a very popular sport at Easter in Cyprus too. The contestants stand in a sack and holding it at the waist, try with little jumps carefully, with feet together, to finish first. This is a lot of fun with everybody falling over all the time!! ‘Sakoulodromies’ [Sack race]

‘Sousa’[Swing] • ‘Sousa’ is more for young girls. Traditionally all the girls went together to a house and made a swing. One girl sat on the swing and the other girls sang traditional Easter songs. Today the girls do not do this anymore. 

‘Cattomougia’ • A very popular and traditional game is ‘cattomougia’. One child closes and covers his eyes with a piece of cloth. Then he ‘blindly’ tries to get one of the other children and when he catches one he must try to guess who it is. If he guesses right they switch places.

‘Shini’[Rope] • ‘Shini’ is a very good and fun game. The children take a long piece of rope. Then the children divide into two teams. One team holds the rope from one side and the other team holds the rope from the other side over a line. After that the teams must pull each other until one team gives up or pulls the other team over the line!!

GAMES • Which of our traditional games do you like? • Try them and tell us your favourite

Traditional games of Easter in Cyprus