Cat's Cradle Game History

It is a type of string figure.

Cat's cradle game history. I had to look up the history of Cats Cradle and was surprised to find that this clever game is played by children EVERYWHERE. String games like this one have a rich and varied history. It is well known in China Korea Japan the Philippines and Borneo.

That certainly sounds far-fetched today but it was a commonly held superstition back in the 1600s and 1700s. The best guess of most historians is that Cats Cradle got its start in a rudimentary form somewhere in Southeast Asia near China and Korea where the game is still played today. And it may be known in Java Celebes and Australia.

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. Our Cats Cradle and Other String Games uses the Haddon and Rivers terminology for defining the strings on the fingers and features jumbo yarn. Known as fan sheng in China and Jack in the Pulpit in the UK its a simple game that requires teamwork and offers a great sense of satisfaction when mastered.

Included are directions for four classic string games. 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. It does not appear that this game has a particular origin.

Cats Cradlegets its name from the childrens game. 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. As Vonnegut says For maybe a hundred thousand years or more grownups have been waving tangles of string in their childrens faces to form nothing but a bunch of Xs between somebodys hands 165-166.

CATS CRADLE is one of the worlds simplest string games. Cats Cradle has moved a few times in its 50 years including to locations on Franklin and Rosemary streets in Chapel Hill. Whale and fox.