Hopscotch

For other uses, see Hopscotch (disambiguation).

Cuba 2002, girls hopscotch.

Hopscotch is a children's game which can be played with several players or alone. Hopscotch is a popular playground game.

Court and rules

Modern schoolyard court; designs vary.

Hopscotch Courts, c. 1900.
English	English (simple)	American

The court (or course)

To play Hopscotch, a course is first laid out on the ground. Depending on the available surface, the course is either scratched out in dirt, or drawn with chalk on pavement. Designs vary, but the course is usually composed of a series of linear squares interspersed with blocks of two lateral squares. Traditionally the course ends with a "safe" or "home" base in which the player may turn before completing the reverse trip. The home base may be a square, a rectangle, or a semicircle. The squares are then numbered in the sequence in which they are to be hopped.

Playing the game

The first player tosses the marker (typically a stone, coin or bean bag) into the first square. The marker must land completely within the designated square and without touching a line or bouncing out. The player then hops through the course, skipping the square with the marker in it. Single squares must be hopped on one foot. For the first single square, either foot may be used. Side by side squares are straddled, with the left foot landing in the left square, and the right foot landing in the right square. Optional squares marked "Safe", "Home", or "Rest" are neutral squares, and may be hopped through in any manner without penalty.

Upon successfully completing the sequence, the player continues the turn by tossing the marker into square number two, and repeating the pattern.

If while hopping through the court in either direction the player steps on a line, misses a square, or loses balance, the turn ends. Players begin their turns where they last left off. The first player to complete one course for every numbered square on the court wins the game.

Although the marker is most often picked up during the game, historically, in the boy's game, the marker was kicked sequentially back through the course on the return trip and then kicked out.

Origin

A hopscotch game with a traditional magpie rhyme in Morecambe, England

There are apocryphal stories of hopscotch being invented by Romans or Chinese, but the first recorded reference to hopscotch dates back to 1677. In an entry of Poor Robin’s Almanack for that year, the game is referred to as "Scotch-hoppers." The entry states, "The time when schoolboys should play at Scotch-hoppers." The 1707 edition of Poor Robin’s Almanack includes the following phrase… "Lawyers and Physicians have little to do this month, so they may (if they will) play at Scotch-hoppers."

Since the game was known and popular in the seventeenth century, it is logical to assume that it existed at least a few decades (or perhaps even many centuries) before 1677. But no conclusive evidence has yet been presented to support this theory.

Etymology

The etymology of hopscotch is unclear. The journal of the British Archaeological Association, Volume 26 (dated March 9, 1870) states, "The sport of Hop-Scotch or Scotch-Hoppers is called in Yorkshire 'Hop-Score,' and in Suffolk 'Scotch Hobbies or Hobby,' from the boy who gets on the player's back whilst hopping or 'hicking,' as it is there termed; and in North Britain it is known as 'Peevers, Peeverels, and Pabats.'"

Variants

There are many other forms of hopscotch played across the globe. In Spain it is called Rayuela. In Latin America, golosa. In Russian it is known as классики (diminutive for the word meaning classrooms). In Poland, it is called klasy, meaning classes. In Italy it is called campana (meaning bell), or mondo (meaning world). In the Netherlands and Flanders, Hinkelen. In Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia it is called školica, meaning little school. In Malaysia the most popular variant is called tengteng. In Mexico, it is called bebeleche (mamaleche) meaning drink milk or avioncito meaning little plane ("probably because of the shape"). In Puerto Rico it is called "peregrina" (meaning "pilgrim"- female noun). In Romania the game is called şotron and is widely played by children all over the country. In Brazil it is called amarelinha. The name evolved from marelle, the French name for the game, but was identified to the radical amarelo (yellow) and its diminutive in -inho/a.. In Breton, the name is reg or delech. The Albanian variant is call is called rrasavi, which is composed of two words: rrasa ("the flat stone", an object used to play the game) and vi ("line", a reference to the lines that comprise the diagram of the course).

Laylay

A hopscotch game in Boston, USA

The game's generic name in Persian is Laylay. The most common form of Laylay in Iran resembles the older Western types and uses six or more (always an even number) side-by-side squares successively (vertically) numbered. The player uses a peg or a flat stone that the player must kick to the next square as the player is hopping. If either the stone or a player's foot lands on a line, the player forfeits the game (or loses a turn). Although somewhat less common, the contemporary Western type is also played.

Escargot

A French variant of hopscotch is known as Escargot (snail) or "La Marelle Ronde" (round hopscotch). It is played on a spiral course. Players must hop on one foot to the center of the spiral and back out again. A player marks one square with his or her initials, and from then on may place two feet in that square, while all other players must hop over it. The game ends when all squares are marked or no one can reach the center, and the winner is the player who "owns" the most squares.

Himmel und Hölle

In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland the game is called Himmel und Hölle (Heaven and Hell) although there are also some other names used, depending on the region. The square below 1 or the 1 itself are called Erde (Earth) while the second to last square is the Hölle (Hell) and the last one is Himmel (Heaven). The first player throws a small stone into the first square and then jumps to the square and must kick the stone to the next square and so on, however, the stone or the player cannot stop in Hell so they try to skip that square.

Kith- Kith

In India, hopscotch is also called kith- kith or Ekhat-Dukhat (meaning one two houses) in the Hindi-speaking areas , Paandi in Tamil Nadu and Tokkudu Billa in Andhra Pradesh (Telugu-speaking state). It has similar principles in that players must hop on one foot and must throw the marker in the right square. This mostly is a girls' game in India, though some boys play them too.

Potsy

Hopscotch was/is called Potsy in New York City.

Amarelinha

In Brazil this game is called Amarelinha.

Rayuela

In Spanish Hopscotch is called "Rayuela" which is also the title of the experimental novel by the Argentinian writer Julio Cortázar, whose work inspired many contemporary novelists and short story writers including Thomas Pynchon, Roberto Bolaño, and Giannina Braschi. In Colombia the game is also called Golosa Spanish for sweet tooth.

Sek Sek

In Turkey this game is called "Sek Sek" which means "Hop Hop".

World Record

The current Guinness Book of World Records holder for the fastest hopscotch game is Ashrita Furman, at 1 minute and 8 seconds.

Further reading

• Skeat, Walter W. (1901). Notes on English Etymology: Chiefly Reprinted from the Transactions of the Philological Society. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

External links

• Hopscotch