Happy New Year everyone! I spent mine in Naarden, with a bunch of crazy Dutch folks, dancing to 80’s pop, eating extravagently, and playing games requiring uniformly high levels of Dutch ability. Needless to say, I sucked, but it was great fun. Kudos to Marieke and Niels for the idea, the venue, and the cooking — great job, guys.

I’m going to try and describe one of the games — one requiring no Dutch ability at all (unless played with a bunch of crazy Dutch folks), but extremely fun. I’m not sure what it’s called, but I’m calling it the Bearded Virgin game, because since I played it, every time someone says “beard” I think “Virgin Mary”.

Rules

The basic idea is very simple: it’s a name-guessing game with no restrictions at all on the names. You start by describing the person, using any words you like except their names. Then there’s a round where the descriptions are restricted to a single word. Finally, you have to act out (charades-like) — but by this time your seeing the names for the third time. It’s easier (and sometimes odder) than it sounds.

To start with, everyone writes two names on two pieces of paper, then all the paper bits go into a pot. You organise in two equal-sized teams, then sit in a circle so that the teams alternate. At any moment, one person has the pot and only their team is guessing. Someone takes the pot to start, and they have one minute (timed) to describe as many names as they can. That is, they draw a paper, and try and describe the person written on it until someone from their team guesses who it is. Then that name is dropped outside the pot (keep them for the next round though). The person describing can also choose to “pass”, in which case the name gets dropped back into the pot. After the minute is up, pass the pot to the next person along (of the other team) and start again.

When the pot is empty, collect up all the paper pieces, put them back in the pot, and begin again. (If you empty the pot part-way through your minute, you can finish your time for the first part of the next round.) In this second round, though, the descriptions are limited to one single word. And again, once the pot is empty, begin again — but this time silently, Charades-style.

Scoring: Every correctly guessed name counts one for that team. Every pass counts one for the opposing team. Simple, really.

Difficult names

You might think this game could go forever, since you might get names that people simply don’t know. But remember, every name in the pot was written by someone in that circle. And more: by the time you get to the one-word stage, everyone has heard each name, and almost certainly also a reasonable description of who it is. The trick is to remember the descriptions for the names you didn’t recognise, so that you can re-use them yourself when it’s your turn with the pot.

Virgin Mary with a beard

So in fact the single words don’t have to be too closely linked to the names, per se, but rather to the descriptions you’ve already heard. Which brings me to the bearded Virgin. The description we got was “bore Jesus,” “baarde Jesus”. And the Dutch word for beard is “baard”. And I’m not sure why, but that’s the word that person went with, in the single-word round. Which is why a beard-stroking motion now immediately makes me think of the Virgin Mary.

Crazy Dutch.