Hot potato explained

Hot potato is a party game that involves players gathering in a circle and tossing a small object such as a beanbag or even a real potato to each other while music plays.[1] The player who is holding the object when the music stops is eliminated.[2]

Origins

The origins of the hot potato game are not clear. However, it may go back as far as 1888 when Sidney Oldall Addy's Glossary of Sheffield Words describes a game in which a number of people sit in a row, or in chairs round a parlor.[3] In this game, a lit candle is handed to the first person, who says:

The one in whose hand the light expires has to pay the forfeit.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Wise, Derba. Great Big Book of Children's Games. 2003-11-10. McGraw Hill Professional. 9780071422468. 266. en.
  2. Book: Maguire, Jack . Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato & Ha Ha Ha: A Rulebook of Children's Games . Simon and Schuster . New York . 1990 . 0671763326 . registration .
  3. "Addy, Sidney Oldall (1888). "The Geographical or Ethnological Position of Sheffield", A Glossary of Words Used in the Neighbourhood of Sheffield." London: Trubner & Co. for the English Dialect Society.