Interactive online games can help teach a variety of age ranges about different cultures. Games teach about culture while letting the player experience and/or see traditional clothing or ideas. Different ways you can learn about traditions through games include playing traditional games of a culture, reading descriptions about the tradition and dress up games in a culture's traditional or ceremonial clothing. There are a vast amount of free traditional games on the internet, ranging from Chinese and Indian culture to ancient African culture.
Festival of Lights Dress up Game
The Festival of Lights dress up game is centered around a young Indian woman preparing for the Diwali festival. Diwali is a five-day festival celebrated by Hindus, commemorating the return of Lord Rama for defeating the demon king Ravana after 14 years of exile. The festival is also called the Festival of lights because celebrators light many rows of oil lamps and candles to welcome Rama. The Festival of lights Dress up Game allows players to select from a variety of traditional clothes for the young woman to wear at the festival.
Mahjong
Evidence of the first mahjong game dates back to 1880 in China. The game wasn't brought to other nations until the 1920s. Before the game starts, the tiles are stacked into a creative formation. Different popular formations for mahjong tiles are the cat, the dragon, the turtle and the spider. Mahjong is a tile matching game, with number tiles, season tiles, dragon tiles and flower tiles. It can be played by a single player, matching like tiles, or head-to-head with each player trying to match the most sets of tiles.
Around the World Dress up Game
The Around the World Dress up game is intended for an audience of younger girls. The game centers around a young girl avatar, and game players are to dress her in traditional clothing, shoes and hairstyles from a large assortment of cultures. Game play is easy and players simply click on the flag of the culture they would like to see traditional clothing from. They can then click "Hair" and "Shoes" to change to different styles. This game teaches a young audience that different cultures have different traditional clothing styles.
Mancala Snails
Mancala might the oldest game in the world. It was first played in ancient Africa, and in modern times mancala is often studied when studying the diversity of African countries. This is because mancala is played in almost every African country by both of the rich and the poor, the young and the old. The game is a counting strategy game in which two players sit on either side of a board with two rows of six dents, and larger bowl on either end. Players can move groups of stones, marbles or other pieces by transferring one piece to each bowl in a counter-clockwise motion. Pieces collected in the large bowls are counted as points, and each player determines which pieces to move to earn the most points. The game ends when all pieces have been captured.