Snowball fight
A snowball fight is a physical game in which balls of snow are thrown with the intention of hitting somebody else. The game is similar to dodgeball in its major factors, though typically less organized. This activity is primarily played during months when there is sufficient snowfall.
Today, the activity is notable for its prominence in the western world. Modern snowball fights tend to have very loose official regulation or constant properties, and so can only loosely be referred to as games. However, a common snowball fight played for fun will often have these characteristics:
- There is crude formation of "teams", usually two groups of opponents throwing at each other.
- Those in a fight often do not behave malevolently; a target is usually not viciously assaulted by snowballs.
- There is minimal physical contact, aside from perhaps wrestling.
- In contrast to other forms of fighting, there is usually no intention of bodily harm.
- Construction and use of snow forts is usually permitted.
Contents
Largest snowball fights
On February 8, 2013, nearly 2,500 students of Boston University took part in a Snowbrawl Fight on Boston's Esplanade facilitated by historic winter storm Nemo.
On January 12, 2013, 5,834 people officially took part in Seattle, Washington set the Guinness World Records record for the world's largest snowball fight, during Seattle's Snow Day.[1][2]
On January 22, 2010, 5,387 people in Taebaek, Republic of Korea, set the world record for most people engaged in a snowball fight.[3]
However, historical studies of snowball fights point to Leuven, Belgium as the actual snowball capital of the world. A recent snowball fight there (on October 14, 2009) broke the world record for the largest snowball fight ever recorded in history. Students from the University of Pennsylvania helped create and fund this fight which reached 5,768 participants, the largest yet recorded.[4]
On February 6, 2010, some 2,000 people met at Dupont Circle in Washington D.C..[5] for a snowball fight organized over the internet after over two feet of snow fell in the region during the North American blizzards of 2010. The event was promoted via Facebook and Twitter. At least a half-dozen D.C. and U.S. Park police cars were positioned around Dupont Circle throughout the snowball fight. Minor injuries were reported.
On December 9, 2009, an estimated crowd of over 4,000 students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison participated in a snowball fight on Bascom Hill. There were reports of several injuries, mainly broken noses, and a few incidences of vandalism, mainly stolen lunch trays from Memorial Union. The snowball fight was scheduled weeks in advance, and was helped by the fact that the University canceled all classes due to 12-16 inches of snow that fell the night before.[3] However, this snowball fight failed to break the record set in October of the same year in Leuven.
During the American Civil War, on January 29, 1863, the largest military snow exchange occurred in the Rappahannock Valley in Northern Virginia. What began as a few hundred men from Texas plotting a friendly fight against their Arkansas camp mates soon escalated into a brawl that involved 9,000 soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia.[6]
In his memoir of the American Civil War, Samuel H. Sprott describes a snowball battle that occurred early in 1864 involving the Army of Tennessee. Sprott states that the fight started when Strahl’s Brigade was attacked by a brigade of Breckenridge’s Division, but soon other brigades became involved, and ultimately five or six thousand men were engaged.
Issues in public places
In many schools and parks around the world, it is against the law to have snowball fights. The problem is that snowballs might have ice shards or rocks inside them and could seriously injure people and the person throwing the snowball could face an assault charge.
See also
References
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