Misra: your version of 6abakh is very similar...here's how my baba's version goes:

(Starting with the pinky): hatha sghayar saghroorah
oo hatha tatem ben tatem
oo hatha labas al khatem
oo hatha la7as algas3a
oo hathal gas33al gamla ("the lice killer")
then: Wen ajdayat emnah?
and then the 'victim' replies that they are at the wolves cave or something like that (I can't remember the exact words)
finally they say: hay ijrarithum oo hay ba3ayrithum (here are their footprints and here is their crap? :) as the hand slowly crawls up to tickle you)

So that's my baba's version...I laugh everytime I think about how silly it is and how much we always enjoyed it! :)

Awwww...that's cute Saff. I like the shibasheb game, very unique!

I remember another game that my cousins used to play in Benghazi. I think its pretty popular in the Libyan community; its called 'Fata7ee ya warda'. I don't remember how it went exactly but we all held hands in a circle and we would sing the 'fata7ee ya warda' song. It was cute but I don't remember the rest.

Another thing we were really into back when we were kids was playing with 'ba6sh'. I don't know what they call them in english, but it was mainly a boys' game but I loved it. The ba6sh was so beautiful and colourful....and I remember we had a big ba6sha that wasn't a toy because it weighed a lot, and baba said that it was for hitting bad people in the face....like if we ever had a intruder in our house we could wack them with the big heavy steal ba6sha in the face and break their nose. I felt so safe.

Here's another one. This game should be rated V-for violent lol.


GAME NAME: Shibasheb

NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 4 - up

AGE: 8 - up

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: A pair of nice rubbery shibasheb(flip flops)

GAME TERMINOLOGY:
Jallad AKA Wazeer: The person that is in charge of hitting the "sareg" on the feet.

Malik or Malika: The person who decides how many hits the "sareg" should recieve.

Sareg: The person that will be hit on the feet.

HOW TO PLAY:

Players sit on the floor/carpet in a circle formation. Youngest player starts the game by throwing both shibasheb up in the air. How they land will determine his position in the game. If the shibasheb land right-side-up the person becomes the "malik", if both the shibasheb land up-side-down the person becomes the "jallad", and if one shibshib lands up-side-down, and the other right-side-up then that person becomes the "sareg". Game continues until everyone has a turn to throw the shibasheb. Once everyone has thrown the shibasheb once, only the "sareg/s" of the game throw the shebasheb, if they end up taking the position of the "malik" or "jallad" then they have to recieve one hit from the previous "malik" or "jallad" and they take on their new position.

There is no winner in this game, the game ends whenever you feel like your feet have had enough torture for one day.


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This game was a fun game to play with our cousins growing up in Misrata.

lol I tried playing this game with my daughter, niece, and nephew...although we used soft slippers it was still fun to play :)

I guess Misrata is the birthplace of all traditionally Libyan games.....we've played soooo many growing up, and now we're passing it on to our kids.


I'll mention two, and leave the rest to Mis to bring up!

GAME NAME: 7idamdem Midamdem
NUMBER OF PLAYERS: 3 - up
AGE: 2 - up
HOW TO PLAY: One person puts their head down in a sujood position. Person down, is not allowed to peak!

Others around him use their right hand to tap their back while chanting "7adamdem midamdem, yadd minu elfugya" (7edamdem midamdem, guess who's hand is the top one), after tapping the person's back while chanting..the players procede to stacking their hands one on top of the other.

The person in the middle has to then guess who's hand is on the top of the stack. If they guess it right, the person who had their hand at the top of the stack will become the middle person. If they don't get it right, the middle person stays in the middle enduring some more tapping (sometimes more like banging) on the back!

My 3 year old daughter loves playing this game with her cousins! The fun thing is that you can play it anywhere and anytime.

my lordy. Never heard of that one before. When I was a little kid in good old Benghazi we played 'Wabees' a lot, which is like Hide and go seek. It was fun. Another game was where we act like we were married and have husbands and kids...and my sister was always the grandma haha. And we would make pretend-hamburgers with the 'trab' in the garden and the hose that the 'ghafeer' uses to clean the veranda. It was great fun. We would always get so dirty from the mud....and later get spanked.....aaaah the love back in the days.

"the lice killer"???? i guess there is geographic variations to the rhyme LOL
we start with the pinkie and say:
haada tatem eltatem (pinkie)
oo hada lebbas elkhatem (ring)
oo hada toweel bilah ______ (dont know the word)
oo hada le7ass elgas3a (index)
and then i dont know what the thumb is...
then its:
debbe debeba...debbe debeba....debbe debeba -- (as the hand slowly crawls up to your neck and other ticklish spots and tickles u to death)
Littlelibyan send me your version

6abbakh...oh the memories! :) Not until earlier this year did I finally get the meaning of this nonsense game. I am sure that when I was younger I would ask my dad what it meant and I'm sure he gave me a random answer (and then tickled away). Now that he has been doing it to my little sisters (2 and 5---masha'Allah) I've started to pay more attention to the little game and it's a weird kid's play on words. As soon as I understood what it was saying ('the lice killer'...'here's their crap'), I rolled on the floor laughing.

That's really the only game I played growing up that was typically Libyan...

well me and my cousins were playing (khwelat ) it's like each one of us made one of the house rooms and act like it's her house then we start acting like we r women and we have husbans bla bla bla i guess we were acting like our mothers LOL