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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.[ citation needed ] This activity is primarily played during winter when there is sufficient snowfall.
In 1472, the city council of Amsterdam allegedly prohibited snowball fights for reasons of public safety, a prohibition which occasionally finds its way into lists of strange laws. [1] The law, if it ever existed, is not presently enforced. [2]
Several localities have passed ordinances prohibiting snowball fights, typically as part of a larger prohibition on thrown missiles. In 2018, the town council of Severance, Colorado unanimously overturned one such ban after hearing from a local youth. [3] Similarly, after its "snowball ordinance" became the subject of national news coverage, the city of Wausau, Wisconsin chose to remove the word "snowball" from a list of dangerous objects specifically prohibited from being thrown on public property. [4]
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. [5]
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.
On January 29, 2005, a crowd of 3,027 people gathered in the town of Wauconda, Illinois for a snowball fight organized by Bill Lutz, with the town receiving a mention in the 2006 Guinness Book of World Records. [6]
On October 14, 2009, 5,768 people in Leuven, Belgium took part in a University of Pennsylvania-funded snowball fight and broke the world record for the largest snowball fight. [7]
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 some 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. [8] However, this snowball fight failed to break the record set in October of the same year in Leuven.
On January 22, 2010, 5,387 people in Taebaek, South Korea, set the world record for most people engaged in a snowball fight. [9]
On February 6, 2010, some 2,000 people met at Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C. [10] 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 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.
On February 8, 2013, nearly 2,500 students of the Boston University participated in a snowball fight on Boston's Esplanade facilitated by historic winter storm "Nemo".
Yukigassen (雪合戦) is a snowball fighting-competition originating in Japan. There are annual Yukigassen tournaments in Japan, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, the United States and Canada.
Seattle's world record was broken on January 31, 2016 in Saskatoon, Canada, where more than 20,000 participants came to Victoria park to attempt the Guinness World Record. Rick Mercer was one of the participants who came to shoot an episode about Team Canada's Yukigassen team and compete in the world record. [11] Underestimating the number of participants the event ran out of their 8200 wristbands hours before the competition took place. In total 7,681 participants was the official Guinness record and was achieved by the City of Saskatoon thanks to Yukigassen Team Canada. [12] [13]
The event was organized to send off Team Canada for the Showa Shinzan International Yukigassen World Championships, an annual professional snowball fighting competition. [14]
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Winter sports or winter activities are competitive sports or non-competitive recreational activities which are played on snow or ice. Most are variations of skiing, ice skating and sledding. Traditionally, such games were only played in cold areas during winter, but artificial snow and artificial ice allow more flexibility. Playing areas and fields consist of either snow or ice.
Wauconda is a village in Lake County, Illinois, United States, a northwest suburb of Chicago. Per the 2020 census, the population was 14,084. It is the site of the Wauconda Bog Nature Preserve, a National Natural Landmark. Wauconda Community Unit School District 118 serves students from Pre-K through 12th grade who live in Wauconda and surrounding communities. Fremont School District 79 also serves students from communities from northern part of Wauconda.
The Independent Belgian Brigade was a Belgian and Luxembourgish military unit in the Free Belgian forces during World War II, commonly known as the Piron Brigade after its commanding officer Jean-Baptiste Piron. It saw action in Western Europe and participated in the Battle of Normandy, the Liberation of Belgium, and fighting in the Netherlands over 1944-1945.
The Mackenzie–Papineau Battalion or Mac-Paps were a battalion of Canadians who fought as part of the XV International Brigade on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s. Except for France, no other country had a greater proportion of its population volunteer in Spain as did Canada. The XV International Brigade, made up also of volunteer battalions from the United States and Britain, was involved in the Battle of Jarama, in which nine Canadians are known to have been killed.
Michael Sprott is a British former professional boxer who competed from 1996 to 2018. At regional level, he held multiple heavyweight championships, including the British and Commonwealth titles in 2004; and challenged three times for the European title in 2005, 2010 and 2011; and won the Prizefighter series in 2010 and 2013.
A snow fort or snow castle is a usually open-topped temporary structure made of snow walls that is usually used for recreational purposes. Snow forts are generally built by children as a playground game or winter pastime and are used as defensive structures in snowball fights. They are also built and used for make-believe games such as "house", "store", or "community", a game where multiple forts are built in a group. Along with the snowman, it is one of the two structures commonly built by children out of snow.
Linden Research, Inc., doing business as Linden Lab, is an American technology company that is best known as the developer of Second Life.
A scavenger hunt is a game in which the organizers prepare a list defining specific items that need to be found, which the participants seek to gather or complete all items on the list, usually without purchasing them. Usually participants work in small teams, although the rules may allow individuals to participate. The goal is to be the first to complete the list or to complete the most items on that list. In variations of the game, players take photographs of listed items or be challenged to complete the tasks on the list in the most creative manner. A treasure hunt is another name for the game, but it may involve following a series of clues to find objects or a single prize in a particular order.
On January 20, 2005, a number of counter-inaugural demonstrations were held in Washington, D.C., and other American cities to protest the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.
Maslenitsa, also known as Butter Lady, Butter Week, Crepe week, or Cheesefare Week, is an Eastern Slavic religious and folk holiday which has retained a number of elements of Slavic mythology in its ritual. It is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent; that is, the eighth week before Eastern Orthodox Pascha.
Yukigassen is a snowball fighting-competition from Japan. Today there are annual tournaments in Sōbetsu in Japan, Kemijärvi in Finland, Vardø in Norway, Murmansk in Russia, Mount Buller in Australia, Luleå in Sweden, Anchorage in Alaska, Aparan in Armenia, Jasper and Saskatoon in Canada.
A zombie walk is an organized public gathering of people who dress up in zombie costumes. Participants usually meet in an urban center and make their way around the city streets and public spaces in an orderly fashion. Zombie walks can be organized simply for entertainment or with a purpose, such as setting a world record or promoting a charitable cause. Originating in North America during the 2000s, zombie walks have occurred throughout the world.
The history of organized firefighting began in ancient Rome while under the rule of the first Roman Emperor Augustus. Prior to that, Ctesibius, a Greek citizen of Alexandria, developed the first fire pump in the third century BC, which was later improved upon in a design by Hero of Alexandria in the first century BC.
Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey similar in its object and appearance to traditional ice hockey, but simplified and designed to be played on part of a natural frozen body of water. The rink is 50 to 80 percent the size of a standard NHL-specification rink, and has no boards or glass surrounding it; usually only a barrier of snow keeps the puck in play. In addition, because there are no protective barriers behind the goal to contain high errant shots, the top of the goal is lower, in fact only slightly taller than the width of a puck, and the game does not have a formal goalie. Because of these differences, pond hockey places more emphasis on skating and puckhandling ability and less on shooting and checking. Non-competitive pond hockey is played with improvised goals, rinks of a variety of sizes, and no boards or snow barriers. There can only be 4 players playing per team at a time but have many subs to sub in.
A snowman is an anthropomorphic snow sculpture of a man often built in regions with sufficient snowfall and is a common winter tradition. In many places, typical snowmen consist of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional accoutrements for facial and other features. Due to the sculptability of snow, there is also a wide variety of other styles. Common accessories include branches for arms and a smiley face made of stones, with a carrot used for a nose. Clothing, such as a hat or scarf, may be included.
Thrill the World is an annual international dance event and world record breaking attempt, in which participants simultaneously emulate the zombie dance seen in the music video of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", originally choreographed by Michael Peters and assisted by Vincent Paterson. The dancers perform in unison at locations throughout the world, and can range from kids and pre-teens to the elderly. Canadian dance instructor and entrpreneur Ines Markeljevic created the event "Thrill Toronto" where she taught a group of 62 zombies the dance in a mere couple of hours and they set the first Guinness World Records for Largest Thriller Dance in one location, at a community hall in Canada.
Wiki Loves Monuments (WLM) is an annual international photographic competition held during the month of September, organised worldwide by Wikipedia community members with the help of local Wikimedia affiliates across the globe. Participants take pictures of local historical monuments and heritage sites in their region, and upload them to Wikimedia Commons. The aim of event is to highlight the heritage sites of the participating countries with the goal to encourage people to capture pictures of these monuments, and to put them under a free licence which can then be re-used not only in Wikipedia but everywhere by everyone.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Meltdown is the 13th book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. It was published on October 30, 2018. The story takes place soon after the events of The Getaway, in the winter and centers on a snowball fight in protagonist Greg Heffley's neighborhood. The Meltdown was advertised through a live book tour by Kinney. Upon release, the novel sold several hundred thousand copies and received positive reviews from critics.
Bombargo is an independent pop band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, formed in 2013 by Nathan Thoen and Spencer Chilliak.
