Play 'Squid Game' at home: The rules for each Korean pastime from season two

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Play 'Squid Game' at home: The rules for each Korean pastime from season two

Published: 01 Jan. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 10 Jan. 2025, 11:13

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Namsun Elementary School students in Daejeon play squid game on Sept. 28, 2021. [NEWS1]

Netflix’s dystopian hit “Squid Game” (2021-) introduced a myriad of traditional Korean activities, like "Red Light, Green Light" and eating dalgona (melted Korean sugar candy), to the world. Now the long-awaited season two is out with additional traditional Korean games.

While most of these pastimes are participated in less among children now, they still regularly make appearances during holidays, like Seollal in winter and Chuseok in fall, at family gatherings or at special public events — like those hosted by the National Folk Museum of Korea, the Blue House and the Seoul Museum of History.

The upcoming Seollal holidays are from Jan. 28 to 30, so keep your eyes peeled for announcements soon.

These traditional games have been enjoyed over generations and are usually what bring family members closer during the holidays. After all, playing them in real life won’t result in a bloody demise like in “Squid Game” — right?

Here is everything you need to know about the traditional Korean games that are featured in the new season, from their conventional rules to how they’ve been reinterpreted. Warning: Spoilers are ahead.

People play "Red Light, Green Light" during an offline event ahead of the release of season two of Netflix's "Squid Game" in Paris on Dec. 2. Here shows 456 randomly selected participants for the event running away from the giant robot doll Younghee. [NEWS1]

'Red Light, Green Light'

The fan-favorite game for the “Squid Game” franchise is back, along with the terrifying giant robot doll, Younghee.

While the name of the game is based on traffic signal lights in the United States, in Korea it’s called, “Mugunghwa Flower Has Blossomed.” Mugunghwa, or the Rose of Sharon, is the national flower of Korea, shown in emblems and mentioned in the national anthem.

The game requires a tagger, or sullae, and the rest of the players — the more, the merrier — stand at the starting line meters away. The sullae has their back turned to the players and shouts out the game’s catchphrase, which follows its name, “Mugunghwa kkochi pieotseumnida.” Players must continue moving toward the sullae, but freeze when the sullae turns back around after saying the phrase.

If a player is caught moving by the sullae, they are “out” and must lock pinky fingers with the sullae. After a player reaches close enough to cut the pinky tie with their hand, all players can run back to the starting line. The player that is caught by the sullae becomes the new sullae.

While Younghee in “Squid Game” repeats the chant at a regular speed, real-life players will tend to blurt the phrase out quickly to dismiss as many players as possible. Also, obviously, there are no armed henchmen standing by, ready to shoot you dead if you’re out.

This game requires no supplies and is preferably played in a wide open space, perhaps at a park.

Children play ddakji chigi (throwing folded paper) in Hampyeong County, South Jeolla, on April 26. [YONHAP]

Ddakji chigi

Ddakji refers to any piece of paper that has a letter or drawing, like stamps or labels. But for younger children, it’s a foldable, portable and collectible game piece. In ddakji chigi (to strike), each player will try to flip their opponent’s ddakji to win.

Ddakji are made by folding colorful square-shaped origami paper in particular ways to create flat tiles with triangular patterns. Multiple players, usually two, take turns slamming their ddakji onto the opponent’s ddakji, which is placed on the ground, in an attempt to flip it. If they succeed, the thrower gets to keep the opponent’s ddakji, and the game continues until a player loses all their ddakji.

From the 21st century, ddakji expanded from DIY origami tiles to ready-made circular strawboard or rubber pieces. These would have illustrations of or be shaped like popular animated characters for children, from MapleStory to Pokémon. Before the advent of smartphones, they were collected and traded among children like baseball cards, as they would be included in packets of chips as free toys or sold in bulk at stationery stores.

“Squid Game” is not the first show to introduce ddakji overseas. While most foreigners would be familiar with using milk caps to play the game, the SBS variety show “Running Man” (2010-) had special episodes on ddakji chigi in the 2010s. The game quickly spread to Hallyu fans in regions like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and China.

In season one of “Squid Game,” actor Gong Yoo, who plays the Recruiter, would slap his opponents across the face whenever he won. In season two, the game is part of a mini-game rally that teams of five must all pass to survive.

Ddakji chigi requires origami paper, which is sold at any nearby stationery store. Feeling lazy? Just cut up some regular printer paper into squares and begin folding. The folding methods can be found here.

In this undated photo, children play biseok chigi (hitting a stone slab). Here shows the girl on the left carrying a rock on the top of her foot. [ENCYCLOPEDIA OF KOREAN FOLK CULTURE]

Biseok chigi

Biseok chigi is when players throw rocks to knock down another set of palm-sized rocks placed a couple of meters away. Usually, players are divided into two teams, with each team setting up their own set of palm-sized rocks. The teams take turns at trying to knock the opposition's rocks down.

There are several interpretations in hanja (Chinese characters used in Korean) of the game’s name. Some say that it’s because players in ancient times used rocks shaped like tombstones, and others say it’s that the intention of the game is to strike the rocks to make them go flying.

For this game, there’s a catch: There are stages as to which each body part can be used when throwing the rocks — which can favor flexible people. The easy, first stage allows players to throw rocks by hand, but as the game progresses, players will find themselves kicking the rocks, or even throwing them using their knees, chest, shoulders or head.

In “Squid Game,” players were able to throw using their hands but were required to stay behind the starting line.

Any small rocks are acceptable to use for biseok chigi, and in the modernized game sets sold online, they are shaped as wooden square cutouts.

Gonggi nori (Korean jacks) [JOONGANG ILBO]

Gonggi nori

Most Korean learners might translate gonggi to air, but in this context, it refers to small, colorful plastic stones that make jiggling noises. Usually played with five pieces, gonggi nori (game) is the equivalent of the Western game jacks.

Traditionally, people used actual pebbles to play the game, but in the present day, gonggi has naturally become synonymous with these off-the-shelf versions.

The most general rule in gonggi nori is to throw one gonggi in the air and try to snatch the others scattered on the ground, all by using only one hand. In five stages, players start out with picking them up in ones, then twos, threes and fours. In the final stage, the player must throw all five gonggi into the air and catch them with the back of their hand, which is accurately depicted in “Squid Game.”

One important rule is that the players should never touch the other gonggi that they’re not picking up during the process.

Gonggi sets are quite cheap in Korea, and can cost much less than on global e-commerce sites, making them a great souvenir to buy while on vacation in the country.

In this undated photo, children play paengi chigi (top spinning) on ice. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Paengi chigi

There’s a certain sense of delight that comes from a perfectly stable, spinning paengi, or top, that has established the toy as a longtime favorite among children. In Korea, paengi chigi was traditionally played frequently during the wintertime atop icy roads using cone-shaped paengi made from carving robust wood, like birch or pine, and attaching a small pointy nail at the tip.

The origins of spinning tops can be traced back to ancient times, in places like Egypt, Greece and China. Archaeologists have even discovered some in Tutankhamun’s tomb. In Korea, paengi have emerged in historical records as far back as the year 720.

Players can make the paengi spin by hitting it with a whip, or the “Squid Game” way, which was popular during the 1980s and ‘90s. It involves wrapping a long string around the paengi’s body and flicking to release it onto the ground.

Of course, the ubiquitous aspect of paengi chigi is that the player who keeps the top spinning wins.

Like gonggi, traditional tops can be far cheaper in Korea, and some even boast deep craftsmanship, with obangsaek (traditional Korean color spectrum of red, blue, yellow, white and black) designs.

Children play jegi chagi (Korean hacky sack) in Seocho District, southern Seoul, on Sept. 5, 2022. [YONHAP]

Jegi chagi

These small colorful tufts aren’t pom-poms used by cheerleaders but are called jegi. The game is straightforward and simple: Continue kicking the jegi so that it never drops to the floor.

Decades ago, jegi used to be made by wrapping long strands of tough paper or cloth around a coin or piece of iron. Players can enjoy the game alone, compete one-on-one or kick a single jegi around in a circle during a group match.

The precise rules can change flexibly. In “Squid Game,” players were told to kick the jegi five times in a row in order to pass. While generally this would be deemed an easy win, unfortunately that wasn't the case for the “Squid Game” contestants who were pressured by life-threatening situations.

Practically anything can be used as jegi, as they come in all shapes and sizes. Typical designs are similar to pom-poms or shuttlecocks.

The henchmen, or Pink Guards, from Netflix's "Squid Game" demonstrate how to play rock, paper, scissors, minus one in a YouTube video. [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Rock, paper, scissors, minus one

While this variant of the universal rock, paper, scissors game isn’t completely traditional, it is still considered a classic in Korea.

After chanting “gawi, bawi, bo,” all players must put out not one, but two options with both hands. Players then have a brief second to choose between two options, when any player shouts “hana ppaegi,” or “minus one.” Players must then retract one hand each to determine the winner based on the hands that are still out.

Like “Red Light, Green Light,” this game does not require any materials and on top of that, isn't restricted by space.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]