Breaking the chain and Dropping a handkerchief game has become known among Mongolians since around 1960s and mainly school children play them during their break time.
Two groups of children stand hand-in-hand, resembling a chain at a distance of five meters from each other. Someone on one side shouts, “Break the golden chain!,” and another from the other side asks, “By whom?”. The first side replies by naming one of the children, like “Saruul,” etc. The chosen player then runs and tries to break the chain of the other group. Players try to hold their hands as strong as possible to keep the attacker from breaking their chain. If the player fails to break the chain, he or she must join the opponent’s side. If the attack is successful, however, one of the players is brought back to the other side. The side that brings all of the players to their side wins the game.
Dropping a Handkerchief
Children sit down in a circle. One of the children walks on the outside of the circle and secretly drops a handkerchief by the behind of one of the children. If the sitting player doesn’t know about the handkerchief by the time the child walking outside of the ring returns to his/her seat, then that player receives “punishment” by being forced to show his/her talent, such as by singing a song and rhyming a verse. If the sitting player knows the handkerchief has fallen, he/she takes it and then walks around the outside of the circle to drop it behind another sitting player.
