During the New Year festivities the ceremonial ball-game of the young men and the maidens is played in the village square. The partners form two lines facing each other, throw rag-balls from one line to the other, and accompany the game with recitations and songs. Nearby, the younger boys play the badminton game, in the course of which feathered missiles of bamboo are batted to and from with wooden racquets. In a different part of the village several boys are playing the “topspinning game.” During these games, the New Year is heralded by a man shooting a flint-lock musket.
