Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Afghan Recreation
Afghan Recreation
Cricket
Khabaddi (kind of) Soccer (football) Basketball
Gudi-paran-jangi
Kites ranged from .5 to 1.5 meters across Made from a cotton line with crushed glass glued to it. Nylon string with stronger glue is the preferred method now.
Kites can fly up to 3500 meters depending on the size of the kit
Gudi-paran-jangi
There is a flyer and an assistant. The assistant always stands to the left of flyer. The tension of the string is controlled by the kite flyers assistant. While the kite flyer is aiming to fly the kite, his assistant constantly stays on his left with the spool in hand. It was banned by the Taliban for being non-islamic.
Kite Running
Children run over rooftops and compound walls in hazardous attempts to recover a falling kite. A loser, at times, will hide and tie a string to a stone, toss the stone over the victor's string, and pull the kite down.
Tools
Childrens games
Similar to what you would see in a park. Lots of tag like games Very similar to what you would see American children playing
Tushla Bazi
Game similar to marbles. Circle drawn in the dirt and use marbles to knock the other players marbles out of the circle. Winner gets pocket change
Loser is sad.
A lot of Afghans have very simple games that involve wagers. Many of the bets are food.
Barfi
First snow fall of the year one Afghan sends a letter to a friend with a riddle on the inside, if the riddle reaches the recipient successfully, they must give the sender a meal. Typically they try not to answer the door on the first snowfall of the year. After the senders servant gives up and goes home, the recipient tries to intercept the message before the servant reaches the sender. If the recipient successfully does this, the sender owes the interceptor a meal, and they give the servant a symbolic beating(?)
Similar to the American wish bone game, participating Afghans break a wishbone in half. It doesnt matter who got the bigger half, but this action starts the game. A wager is made ahead of time (usually a meal) and at anytime in the future when one participant hands the other an object they must say I remember. The game continues until one participant forgets.
Egg fighting
Boys gamble pocket change on egg fights They try to smash their eggs against each other end to end.
Cock Fights
No fighting to the death No spurs. No artificial appendages Birds must be similar size Each bird gets 4 time outs
Cock Fights
To start, the Cock owner agitates the bird then releases them against the opponent. The fight ends when one bird is clearly winning. Afterward two new participants come forward to fight.
On special occasions different animals are made to fight. Camels Rams Dogs Captured hyena
Pahlwani
Rules- Grab arms or clothing and throw opponents to the ground and pin them. Much clothing is ripped and has to be replaced to continue.