THE Chinese New Year began on Monday past so I thought the Youth Group should have a suitably themed night and learn about a very different culture and faith tradition from our own.
We looked at the history and the myths surrounding the New Year and at the customs and practices too.
Years ago someone gave me a Chinese calligraphy set as a present. It's beautiful with a little pot for water and the tiniest spoon to ladle droplets onto the ink stone and various sizes of brushes all set in their own places. The box was certainly far more beautiful than most of our attempts to copy even the simplest word! Chinese writing is far from easy and a skill it must take years to master.
After that we made our own egg fried rice – the easiest recipe I could think of for a crowd.
We finished with something that is not Chinese at all but which proved to be a lot of fun. Especially for the leaders who found themselves being transported back down memory lane to their childhood.
Did you ever play Chinese ropes? I think it is also known as French skipping. Very few of the youngsters had ever come across it!
You string a whole pile of rubber bands together (thank you Postie for all the bands you put round my mail) and make one continuous length.
Two people stand inside the bands and stretch them out to create a long thin rectangle at ankle height and then the "jumper" jumps in and out of the bands and over them, finally finishing by landing on the ropes.
Then the bands are raised to knee height and the "jumper" has to do the same again.
Then it goes on to hip height, waist height and so on. I am not sure I have ever seen anyone getting past the waist!
Our evening got me thinking about the other games we played as children that I am not aware of being played any more. I was taken back to playing conkers and peevers (or beds) to "Matthew, Mark, Luke and John" with a ball against a wall, not to mention "kerby" for which you need a very quiet street and a football.
I hope that just reading this might spark memories of games you played when you were young. If it does, then why not talk about those games with your children and grandchildren and see if they might want to have a go? Just because year 4709 has now begun (according to the Chinese calendar) that doesn't mean to say the past needs to be forgotten.
And I am sure it is more than games we should be passing on.
What do you think?
