Traditional games are played throughout the world, by individuals and groups of all ages, with informal or formal rules, and at homes, schools, work, and a variety of community settings. Traditional games are most often learned by observing and participating in the game; teachers are most often a parent or other familiar adult, a sibling, or a friend.
Despite the prevalence of institutionalized recreational instruction and standardized, professionalized sports, most games are still learned within the much more informal settings of home, playground, and relatively small ethnic and social organizations. Games play a critical role in fostering and maintaining ethnic and group identity, acquiring physical and intellectual skills, learning cultural knowledge, and developing and negotiating social relationships.


Bocce
Italian-American Club, Livonia, MI

The ancient game of bocce continues to be a thriving tradition wherever Italian settlements are found. While the name "bocce" dates to Roman times, the game itself appears to be even older. It was the Romans, however, who introduced bocce throughout Europe. A number of bowling variants have emerged in former Roman territories, probably including Belgian&Mac223;oor and feather bowling. In bocce, a small object ball, the pallino, is thrown from the starting line. Larger bowling balls (bocce) are tossed alternately by competing players in order to come as close to the pallino as possible. The balls nearest to the pallino win. Immigrant Italians played bocce in backyards, in parks, and on street corners. Today, both in Italy and the United States, the game usually is played on specially constructed courts.


Belgian-American Feather and Floor Bowling
Belgian-American Floor Bowlers, Detroit, MI
Cadieux Café Featherbowling Club, Detroit, MI

Michigan is home to the nation’s largest Belgian population, composed of two principal ethnic groups: the Dutch-speaking Flemings and the French-speaking Walloons. Although rural settlements of Belgian-Americans exist in both peninsulas, the majority live in the metropolitan Detroit area.
Among the strongest Belgian folk traditions found in these communities today are foodways, such as rabbit dinners and raisin bread, and certain games and sports. Belgian-American clubs sponsor activities, such as the card game Bien, Belgian darts, box shooting, archery tournaments, pigeon racing, bicycle racing, and two distinctive types of traditional bowling: feather and &Mac223;oor bowling. The Cadieux Café Featherbowling Club, formed in 1933, still hosts feather bowling in curved-sided clay courts at the Cadieux Café in Detroit. Bowlers roll special balls having two slightly&Mac223;attened sides as close as possible to a pigeon feather placed at one end of the court. Floor bowling, carried on by the Belgian-American Floor Bowlers, involves rolling these same specialized balls toward the center of a target drawn on a tile&Mac223;oor.


Horseshoes
Greater Lansing Area Horseshoe Club, Lansing, MI

According to Oscar Hope, founder of the Capital Area Horseshoe Club, now called the Greater Lansing Area Horseshoe Club, it is thought the game of pitching horseshoes towards a metal spike target originated in Roman times among members of the calvary. Brought to this country by European immigrants, horseshoe pitching continued to be popular among the military forces and wherever horses were kept. Now a sport with clubs established around the world, the game continues to be a favorite recreational activity at family reunions, county fairs, grange halls, and in community parks.
In Michigan there are about 20 to 25 organized clubs that belong to one of two leagues: Wolverine State Horseshoe Pitchers Association (WSHPA) and M-46, composed mainly of clubs clustered around highway M-46. They play according to a set of rules that provide handicaps for different levels of skill and age. Men pitch 40 feet and women and youth up to 16 years of age and elderly men over 70 pitch 30 feet.
Members of the National Horseshoe Pitching Association, the Greater Lansing Area Horseshoe Club participates in two-day tournaments all season and hosts several tournaments, including a "fellowship" tournament with a Canadian team. Several club members have won their class at the state tournament held annually on Labor Day weekend, and a few have placed in the World Tournaments.


Pétanque
Alliance Française de Toledo, Toledo, OH
Michigan Pétanque Club, Detroit, MI

The game of pétanque (pronounced PAY-TONK) is played enthusiastically around the world by members of diverse ethnic groups, but it is especially popular in France and in French-speaking communities. Families play it as an informal backyard game, French social club members play it at picnics and other gatherings, and some individuals join pétanque clubs. Twenty-three pétanque clubs are af&Mac222;liated with Federation of Pétanque USA, and numerous others are part of the International Federation of Pétanque, which has branches in 50 countries.
Pétanque is played with metal balls or boules on any hard-packed dirt surface. The game can be played by individuals, one-on-one, in doubles, or triples; six boules are used per team except during one-on-one games when the two players each use a set of three boules. The player starting the game draws a small circle on the ground and, with both feet in the circle, tosses the small target "jack" or cochonet to a distance of 6 to 10 meters. Players then throw, not roll, the boules toward the jack to score points. When necessary, distances are measured carefully to determine which boule is closest. Rounds are played until a player or team reaches 13 points.


Tuaj lub/Hmong Top Spinning
Hmong American Community Association, Lansing, MI

Every Saturday and Sunday night in Lansing’s Frances Park from May until October (or until the weather gets too cold) a group of Hmong Americans can usually be found playing a top spinning game (tuaj lub, pronounced TUB LUB). As in communities of Hmong immigrants throughout the United States, the game in Lansing is usually played by men over the age of 30 who were most likely born in Laos where everyone knows how to play. As Chao Vue, president of Lansing’s Hmong American Community Association says, "Younger Hmong play soccer—they do not know how to wind the string and throw the tuaj lub."
Two teams with a minimum of three and maximum of seven players each is needed; all players have their own tops, which they either make themselves or get from a Hmong top maker living in North Carolina. Games usually last at least 15 minutes but can last a lot longer. In Lansing, the winning team is usually awarded a watermelon, but on special occasions, such as the Hmong New Year, modest cash prices are awarded.