Hot potato
{{Short description|Party game}}
{{About|the party game|other uses|Hot potato (disambiguation){{!}}Hot Potato}}
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.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wTuZMWvmUisC|title=Great Big Book of Children's Games|last=Wise|first=Derba|date=2003-11-10|publisher=McGraw Hill Professional|isbn=9780071422468|pages=266|language=en}} The player who is holding the object when the music stops is eliminated.{{cite book |last=Maguire |first=Jack |title=Hopscotch, Hangman, Hot Potato & Ha Ha Ha: A Rulebook of Children's Games |publisher=Simon and Schuster |location=New York |year=1990 |isbn=0671763326 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/hopscotchhangman00jack }}
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.{{cite book |last=Addy |first=Sidney Oldall |author-link=Sidney Oldall Addy |date=1888 |title=A glossary of words used in the neighbourhood of Sheffield, including a selection of local names, and some notices of folklore, games and customs |location=London |publisher=Trubner & Co. for the English Dialect Society |page=118 |url=https://archive.org/details/glossaryofwordsu00addyuoft/page/118/mode/2up |via=Internet Archive}}. In this game, a lit candle is handed to the first person, who says:
{{quote|
Jack's alive, and likely to live
If he dies in your hand, you've a forfeit to give.
}}
The one in whose hand the light expires has to pay the forfeit.
See also
- {{annotated link|Bagholder}}
- {{annotated link|Musical chairs}}
- {{annotated link|Pass the parcel}}
- {{annotated link|Passing the buck}}
- {{annotated link|Snap-dragon (game)}}