Snowball fight

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A snowball fight is a physical game in which snowballs are thrown with the intention of hitting somebody else. The game is similar to dodgeball in its major factors, though typically less organized. This activity is primarily played during months when there is sufficient snowfall.

Snowball fights have occurred since the dawn of civilization, in the oldest human populations where snow was available.^{[citation needed]}

Today, the activity is notable for its prominence in the western world. Modern snowball fights tend to have very loose official regulation or constant properties, and so can only loosely be referred to as games. However, a common snowball fight played for fun will often have these characteristics:

• There is crude formation of "teams", usually two groups of opponents throwing at each other.
• Snowballs are usually not thrown at the face, but rather at the body.
• Those in a fight often do not behave malevolently; a target is usually not viciously assaulted by snowballs.
• There is minimal physical contact, aside from perhaps wrestling.
• In contrast to other forms of fighting, there is usually no intention of bodily harm.
• Construction and use of snow forts is permitted.
• Ice balls being made from hard ice rather than soft snow, or the insertion of hard objects such as rocks into snowballs, are considered poor sportsmanship as they can cause an injury.
• Although particularly heated battles may devolve into whitewashing, or rubbing snow directly into an opponent's face, this is widely frowned upon for more casual affairs like throwing snow balls.

Contents 1 World record 2 See also 3 References 4 External links

[edit] World record

3,749 students and alumni of Michigan Technological University, as well as members of the community, set the world record for most people engaged in a snowball fight on February 10, 2006.^[1]

During the American Civil War, on January 29, 1863, the largest military snow exchange occurred in the Rappahannock Valley in Northern Virginia. What began as a few hundred men from Texas plotting a friendly fight against their Arkansas camp mates soon escalated into a brawl that involved 9,000 soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia [1].

[edit] See also

• Yukigassen
• Snowball
• Winter holiday season

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Snowball fight

• Showa-Shinzan International Yukigassen
• Yukigassen Nordic Championship (Norwegian)
• European Championship
• Snow Info - rules for a snowball fight
• Last one standing - Swiss Snowball Association and World Snowball Union