Traditional games held in Hanoi’s pedestrian streets

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From Friday nights until Sunday nights and on public holidays, vehicles are banned from entering a number of streets around Hoan Kiem Lake, which leaves a quiet atmosphere in which people can take a walk, and enjoy some interesting activities, including traditional games. 

Stilt walking players in the newly opened pedestrian streets.

Jump rope, tug of war, Mandarin Square capturing, bamboo jacks, stilt walking, etc. are familiar Vietnamese traditional games originating from villages, but quite hard to find in the streets nowadays. 

However, taking a walk in Hanoi’s pedestrian streets at the weekend, it’s easy to find many people enthusiastically engaged in games that remind them of the good old days of their childhood. 

Bich Ngoc, a citizen in Ba Dinh district told VOV about her feelings when she visited the calmer streets.

People of all ages love playing Mandarin Square Capturing.

“The walking streets were opened a while ago but it was not until today that I could take my children here. I started to walk from the Post Office to this traditional games area and I’m very interested. My friends also told me about this and today I’ve really enjoyed it," she said. 

"I played these games when I was very little and now I want my children to play them too in an open space like this to learn more about our traditional cultures,” she added.