About Bocci tal-Hġieġ (Marbles)
As children we would often spend many hours in competitive battle trying to win our friends marbles. It was both a fierce competition and a source of pride for a child to have won the most marbles or in some cases the most spectacular since the marbles came in various colours and designs.
The first known marbles are from Mohenjo-daro in modern day Pakistan and date back to 2,500 BC. These consisted of final carved stone balls. There were also marbles in both Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. They were usually made of clay, stone or even glass as became popular in modern times.
How to play Bocci tal-Hġieġ (Marbles)
There are several different types of games played with marbles but the most common involves players drawing a square or circle on the ground and each placing a specified number and sometimes type of marble with this shape. For example, if four players were participating, each player might put three marbles into the square, giving 12 marbles up for grab. The players would then agree on a distance and draw a line in which they would shoot from. The players would then take it in terms to shoot from the line into the square and trying to knock out their opponents marbles out of the square and thereby winning that marble. They continue in this way until all marbles are out of the square and the winner is the one with the most marbles. The aim of course is to have more marbles than you started off with.
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