Traditional games of Korea

Traditional games of Korea, known in Korean as jeontongnori, are a body of board games, physical contests and seasonal folk activities that developed on the Korean peninsula and were shaped by the country's culture, history and natural environment. The group includes games such as jegichagi, neolttwigi, ssireum, tuho, yut, biseokchigi and paengichigi, spanning shuttlecock kicking, seesaw jumping, wrestling, arrow pitching, a four-stick board race and various stick and top games. Many trace back to agrarian folk traditions and to folk beliefs originally tied to rituals meant to protect against misfortune or to mark the turning of the seasons, with specific games traditionally played at holidays such as the Lunar New Year, Chuseok and Dano. Most require little or no special equipment beyond the hands, feet or simple homemade pieces, and rules and names for the same game often differ from one region of Korea to another. Nearly all of these traditional games nearly disappeared under Japanese colonial rule, and their survival and revival since then are treated in the literature as part of Korea's modern effort to preserve its folk cultural heritage.