The games Ukrainians play

ing spun by her peers. Chattering the language of a ritual that goes back centuries, the children shout, clap, whistle and giggle. All the while they try to avoid being caught by the girl in the middle – the Baba Kutsya.

If they are touched and identified, they become Baba Kutsya.

This Ukrainian version of the Western game of tag is played in schoolyards and courtyards across the nation and beyond. It is one of about a dozen simple games that remains popular with Ukrainian children even in the age of Nintendo, Monopoly and Barbie dolls.

Why do these simple games retain their popularity for decades upon decades and how do they manage to span national, international and sometimes language boundaries? And more importantly, what do they mean?

That is a mystery that a couple of Ukrainian researchers – mother and daughter – are trying to unlock.

Yaroslava Levchuk, 22, a Shevchenko State University student studying Ukrainian language and folklore, and her mother, Valeria Levchuk, a Ukrainian culture researcher, believe that by learning more about the origin of such games Ukrainians can learn more about themselves.

“We are more interested in researching the role of games in language, literature, politics and psychology,” Yaroslava said.

Valeria says that such games mirror culture in the same way that art does.

“The Ukrainians are a very playful nation,” Valeria said. “Take the Ukrainian language: few other tongues boast such variety of forms. Or embroidery. Traditional Ukrainian embroidery uses monotone colors: People who had few resources, created new forms with the play of imagination.”

The two women’s fascination with games is more than a passing interest. Last fall when a group of Shevchenko University students, including Yaroslava, formed a scientific society, Valeria inspired them to research the role of games in culture.

Their quest resulted in Ukraine’s first ever scientific conference dedicated to games, called “Games as the Means of Culture Existence,” held in December 1999.

The conference featured more than 30 topics, ranging from discussions about traditional children’s winter games to games in politics. The controversial themes, such as a comparison between Cossack epic songs and modern political campaigns, inspired heated debates.

Yaroslava has focused her research on the meaning of children’s games. And her thesis, “Inner Semantics of Children’s Folklore,” won an Academy of Sciences contest of young scientists in April.
Her paper tried to answer the question of whether children’s games are imposed by adults or if children learn them intuitively. Yaroslava analyzed various types of traditional games and children’s folklore including the humorous rhymes and songs that accompany games.

Yaroslava concluded that although games are an indispensable attribute of childhood, they are often molded by the adult world, and ultimately prepare a child to live in this world.

“When children play, they try various roles. Usually these are social roles, different professions, but not necessarily good ones. Children can pretend to be villains and people with handicaps,” Yaroslava said. “Children are intuitively preparing for the time when they need to choose their role in life.”

For instance, a forgotten summer game for girls called “Squash” re?enacts in detail the process of planting. The game is actually a small skit with two main actresses – a hostess and a neighbor.

The rest of the kids, playing the role of squashes and other vegetables, sit still.

In the skit, the neighbor comes to the hostess and asks for a squash. Their dialogue goes something like this:

“Give me a squash.”

“You should have planted one yourself.”

“I did plant, but they didn’t grow.”

“I know how you planted. You ate the seeds, and planted the peels.”

“No, I planted every seed I had.”

The dialogue goes on, as the hostess invents all possible mistakes the neighbor could have made while planting: put the seeds upside down, in hard soil and forgot to water it. The neighbor diligently describes how she did everything right.

Finally, the hostess gives up. She allows the neighbor to pick out the ripest squash. Then she returns and asks for another squash. The game goes on, with the hostess and the neighbor inventing a funny but realistic dialogue.

As silly, as it seems, Squash prepares the girls for their future role of a hostess, helps them realize the load of work awaiting them soon and teaches them to treat this burden with humor.

Two similar but much more dynamic boys game are called Shepherd, in which a wolf pack steals sheep from the shepherd and his dogs, and Hryts, Come to Work, when lazy Hryts invents various excuses to skip work.

Ukrainian children have hundreds of games based on everyday life themes. But the most popular are the ones related to calendar holidays.

One of the most colorful acts is Melanka, a New Year’s dress?up carnival for teen?age boys. The main character, Melanka, is the wittiest and is dressed up as woman. Melanka does not walk. “She” is carried around by her entourage: a plowman with a plow, a sower with a seeder, a shepherd with a goat, an old man, a bear, a cat, a crane, a couple of gypsies and a devil. They are dressed up in sheepskin, made up with white clay, soot and fake beards.

The crowd moves around the village. The gypsy tells fortunes, the bear dances, the goat plays fiddle and the crane plays tambourine. Occasionally they enter a house to sing a New Year’s carol, but only in the households where pretty girls live. While the crowd sings, the Melanka tells jokes and messes up the house, scattering trash, hiding dishes and sprinkling water on the hosts.

When the holiday evening is over, the Melanka crowd takes part in the last serious ritual: They undress and wash off their makeup. The ritual symbolizes order that appeared after chaos, when God created the world.

Melanka and some other Ukrainian ritual games are still played in some villages, especially in western Ukraine. The researchers often undertake expeditions down to those villages to study the remnants of the tradition.

For instance, Yaroslava researches and writes down nebylytsi – children’s tales or fables that either accompany a game or can be recited and acted.

“The genre of nebylytsi helps children to cognate the world,” Levchuk says. “A child consciously substitutes the familiar situation with an absurd one: For instance, when a blind man sees, a cat talks or a tree grows to the sky. It helps children develop creative thinking and find non?standard solutions. This method, intuitively familiar to any child, is used by psychologists working with adults.”

Today, Yaroslava and Valeria are working to create a Museum of the Child, which will include Yaroslava’s written collection of nebylytsi, their collection of traditional Ukrainian dolls and books on children’s games.

The mother and daughter hope that their  research will someday help other Ukrainians learn from their ancestors.

“Today adults often do not understand the importance of games. The school has completely eliminated the game element out of the learning process,” Valeria said. “But our ancestors had some intuitive psychology and pedagogic, and their wisdom can help us today if we don’t forget.”