tag

tag, children’s game in which, in its simplest form, the player who is “it” chases the other players, trying to touch one of them, thereby making that person “it.” The game is known by many names, such as leapsa in Romania and kynigito in parts of modern Greece. In some variants the children pretend that the touch carries some form of contagion—e.g., plague (Italy), leprosy (Madagascar), fleas (Spain), or “lurgy fever” (Great Britain). In others, a method of achieving immunity from touch is prescribed, as by touching wood, iron, or a specified colour or assuming a particular position (e.g., squatting). Often limitations or handicaps are imposed on the chaser: the child may be required to clasp hands and imitate a horned animal (stag, bull, or goat) or squat and hop like a frog while the others caper freely around him. In some games the chaser throws a ball at the intended victim. As a game progresses, the original chaser may enlist those touched to help catch the others; sometimes the captives link hands to form a chain, with the players on either end making the capture.

Suspense is an important element of certain elaborations of the game: in ostrakinda, described by the 2nd-century Greek writer Julius Pollux, two teams stood on either side of a line. A shell was spun or tossed in the air, and one team chased the other according to which side of the shell turned up. In another form, the chaser turns his back and walks slowly away, while the others follow at a short distance and chant a rhyme or ask a question (“What’s the time, Mr. Bear?”). The chaser then turns suddenly, sometimes shouting a certain word or phrase (“Dinnertime!”), and pursues them.

In still another version, players must run from one safety zone to another across a central area where the chaser waits for them (this game is known as black peter in central Europe, wall-to-wall in Great Britain, and pom-pom-pullaway in the United States). In addition, there are also freeze tag and group tag. With freeze tag, the tagged person cannot move until someone from his team “unfreezes” him with a touch. In group tag the child touching a safe area (often known as home base) can hold onto another child, that child in turn does the same, and a human chain of safety is created with children who cannot be tagged.