Funny holidays - International Tug of War Day

February 19 is International Tug of War Day This funny holiday is dedicated to a rather serious sport, which was previously included in the list of Olympic disciplines At many holidays and events where competitions are held, people are still divided into teams and grab the ends of the rope to find out which of them is stronger This sport has a very interesting history The oldest image of people pulling a rope in different directions is over 4,000 years old An Egyptian fresco that has survived to this day proves that similar competitions were held in ancient times, but earlier tug-of-war had little to do with sports In fact, it was not even a competition, but rather a sacred rite The peoples of Asia have developed a very interesting attitude towards tug-of-war They often performed this ritual in an attempt to predict the future One team could represent good, and the other could represent evil If the first one won, then it was possible to live in peace, because a cloudless future lay ahead When victory was on the side of the second team, it was worth preparing for trouble By analogy, one group of participants could personify rain, and the second - drought Such rituals were carried out in Burma to determine the onset of the rainy season, as evidenced by documentary sources Those who performed the ritual believed that the outcome of the ritual competition depended not on their own capabilities, but on the intervention of higher powers Ancient China even preserved a legend about the invention of this game According to the Chinese, tug of war appeared at the beginning of time, when there was nothing on earth yet, and the Sun and Moon argued with each other about how much light and darkness to give to this world In Ancient China, as in other parts of the planet, such a competition was used as a training game for future warriors, which trained their strength and endurance Ropes were not always used in this competition For example, in Korea, as in Ancient Egypt, participants simply grabbed those who stood in front by the belts The team captains joined hands In Afghanistan, a board was used instead of a rope, and the Eskimos pulled a short rope in a sitting position As the game became more popular, it began to have certain rules 16 players take part in the tug of war, 8 on each team Participants are selected from the same weight category so that no one has an advantage The length of the rope must be at least 335 meters The main task of the competitors is to pull the rope in their direction four meters beyond the central mark A team can also win a technical victory if the opponent gets a foul, that is, one of the players on the other team falls or sits on the ground At the beginning of the last century, tug of war reached a new level It was officially made a sports discipline, which was included in the list of Olympic sports Only men took part in the competition Tug of war was on the program of the first Olympics for twenty years Although not many teams took part in the competition, it had good potential Between 1900 and 1920, the sport was represented at five Olympics The palm most often went to athletes from Great Britain There is no doubt that the Russian heroes could have provided them with worthy competition, but, alas, the discipline was removed Already in the new century, the IOC seriously considered the idea of ​​returning tug-of-war to the program, but for now it remains a sport for amateurs In Russia, many people like this game It is quite often carried out during public events We also organize open tug-of-war championships in different weight categories