Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Paganistani Children's Games (Winter): Wheel-Tag
It's Deep Winter, and we're well into the holiday thirtnight known variously as Yeaning, Ewesmilk, and February Eve*. If where you live is anything like where I do, the snows lie piled deep.
Ergo, it's the perfect time to play Wheel Tag.
Wheel Tag is just like regular tag—non-binary “It” and all—but you play it on a track in the snow.
Here's how you play.
Lay out a Wheel in the snow and tromp it down well (or, if you're ambitious, shovel it out). If your track is relatively small, make a Wheel with four spokes. If you've got room to spread out—the snow on top of a frozen lake is ideal for this—go with eight spokes.
Then pick an It, and away you go. Remember: you have to stay on the Wheel. Anything that happens off-Wheel doesn't count.
Like most traditional kids' games with a grounding in ritual, the purpose of the game is to play itself through and start over again, around and around: like the year, like Life. Like a Wheel.
In Witch Country, even games are profound.
OK, here we go. I'll be It. Ready, set...play!
And remember: No tag-backs!
Also: Imbolc, Oimelc, Candlemas, Brigid, etc.
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