These bring grandparents and toddlers into the same game. They were the staples of moonlight nights, wakes and long evenings on the verandah, and they need nothing but voices.

Jump to a game: Sally Water · Riddle Me This · Anansi Story Circle

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20. Sally Water

Ages: 3+ · Players: 6+ · Equipment: None · Where: Outdoors

How to play

1. Children form a ring around “Sally”, who crouches in the middle as if crying.
2. The ring sings the Sally Water song, telling her to rise and wipe her eyes.
3. Sally acts out each line, turning to the east and to the west.
4. She chooses “the one that you love the best” from the ring, who becomes the next Sally. Adults often lead the singing for little ones.

Watch it played: Little Sally Water, sung by Louise Bennett, Smithsonian Folkways (YouTube, audio)

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21. Riddle Me This

Ages: 5+ · Players: 2+ · Equipment: None · Where: Verandah, yard or car journey

How to play

1. The riddler opens: “Riddle me this, riddle me that, guess me this riddle and perhaps not.”
2. They pose a traditional riddle. For example: “Mi fada have a cow, everywhere it go it bawl.” (A bell.)
3. Others guess. A correct guesser gives the next riddle.
4. If nobody can answer, the riddler reveals it and earns a point. Elders usually hold the best stock.

Tip: Ask grandparents for the riddles they grew up with and write them down. They are a piece of family history.

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22. Anansi Story Circle

Ages: 4+ · Players: 3+ · Equipment: None (a moonlit yard or verandah helps) · Where: Verandah or yard

How to play

1. Sit in a circle. The teller begins an Anansi tale about the trickster spider, whose stories came to Jamaica from the Akan people of West Africa.
2. Listeners join in with call-and-response and repeated lines.
3. In the game version, the teller stops at a cliffhanger and the next person must carry the story on.
4. Each tale traditionally ends with “Jack Mandora, me no choose none”: the teller takes no responsibility for the story.

Watch it played: Miss Lou tells Anancy and Pattoo (YouTube)

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Rules vary from parish to parish, so treat these as the common version and let local custom win. Did you play it differently in your district? Tell us in the comments.

More Jamaican games: Young Children’s Games (Ages 3–8) · Schoolyard Games for Older Children & Teens (Ages 8–16) · Table Games for Teens & Adults · All games