Catholic Activity: Handkerchief Game

The only thing you need for this fun New Year's game is a handkerchief.

DIRECTIONS

There we all sit in a large circle on the floor. A clean handkerchief is tied up in knots so that it takes the shape of a ball and can be thrown easily through the air. Hedwig volunteers to go out. Now we start throwing the handkerchief across the circle. We have to keep it going until Hedwig comes in. At the moment of her entrance, the one who has just caught it will have to hide it, and Hedwig will have to guess where the handkerchief is. She gives three warning knocks at the door, but as we know that immediately after the third she will burst through the door, we are getting increasingly nervous between the second and third warnings. Sometimes it leads to hilarious situations. The moment Hedwig steps into the room, everyone's features relax into complete, harmless innocence. Everyone's face spells: "Handkerchief? I don't know what you are talking about, Hedwig!" Hedwig has three guesses. If she hasn't found out after the third one, she has to go out again. But this rarely happens. Some people blush helpfully, others look like bad conscience personified, wiggling nervously on the handkerchief they are trying to hide by sitting on it. Everyone — guests, grownups, and children — has to be in on the game. And of course, the one who has been discovered hiding the handkerchief has to go out next.

Activity Source: Around the Year with the Trapp Family by Maria Augusta Trapp, Pantheon Books Inc., New York, New York, 1955