Cat's Cradle Game History

The use of cats in the cradle to describe something dangerous appears to come from an old wives tale that if allowed into its crib a cat would kill an infant by sucking out its breath.

Cat's cradle game history. Haddon has pointed out the familiar game of cats-cradle probably had its origin in Asia whence it was introduced into Europe. Back when I was in middle school I went through a phase where I was really into cats cradle. Along with its cousins -- Jacobs ladder cup and saucer crows feet -- it is played by schoolchildren everywhere.

CATS CRADLE is one of the worlds simplest string games. The question of who first played cats cradle the childrens game in which two players alternately take from each others fingers an intertwined cord so as always to produce a symmetrical figure is almost as contentious as the origin of its name. Cats Cradlegets its name from the childrens game.

It does not appear that this game has a particular origin. Hoenikker reportedly played it on the day the atomic bomb was droppedas opposed to expressing emotion about all of the people his invention had just killed. WORDS RECITED DURING STRING GAMES.

In a literal sense a cats cradle is a game played with string in which each player must maneuver their fingers to create different images one of which is the cats cradle. Though it is most commonly seen as a childrens game in contemporary society cats cradle is one of the oldest and most widespread games found in recorded human history. Some sources say that children played Cats Cradle in England as early as 1782.

Variations of the game have been found in cultures across the world including Eastern Asia Africa the Americas and even the Arctic giving the game a significant amount of interest among anthropologists and ethnologists. That certainly sounds far-fetched today but it was a commonly held superstition back in the 1600s and 1700s. It is one of the oldest examples of human play and thus ties in with the idea that the book though grounded in a specific historical moment is principally concerned with the entirety of the human story.

Cats cradle is one of the oldest games in recorded human history and involves creating various string figures either individually or by passing a loop of. Our Cats Cradle and Other String Games uses the Haddon and Rivers terminology for defining the strings on the fingers and features jumbo yarn. It has also spread to some extent among the Asiatic islands.