The Daring Book for Girls - Andrea J. Buchanan [52]
It’s a good idea to set some ground rules before you play so that nobody gets her feelings hurt or gets in too much trouble: nothing that would get a girl in hot water with her parents, nothing that requires going outside or bothering people not involved in the game. The other basic rule is that once you agree to tell the truth, perform a dare or double-dare, or repeat something embarrassing in public later, there is no chickening out. If you refuse to do what’s asked of you, you’re out of the game.
Examples
Truth: You have to answer a personal question. This can be something like: What’s your deepest darkest secret? What was your most embarrassing moment? When was the last time you brushed your teeth? What superpower do you wish you had?
Dare: You have to do an easy dare, such as “Act like a chicken for thirty seconds,” “Wear your underwear on your head the rest of the night,” “Do ten push-ups,” or “Act out a dramatic death scene.”
Double Dare: A bigger or more embarrassing dare, such as “Kiss a stuffed animal with sound effects,” “Try to pick your nose with your big toe and then wipe it on somebody,” “Sing the national anthem at the top of your lungs,” must be done.
Promise to Repeat: If you don’t want to tell the truth or perform a potentially humiliating dare, you can choose “Promise to Repeat,” which requires you to promise to repeat something embarrassing in public later, like agreeing to include the word “stultifying” in every sentence you say to your mom the next day.
Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board
How to play
Have one person lay on the ground, while four to six others gather around her. The players should place the index fingers of both hands underneath the person lying down, and then, with eyes closed, everyone begins to chant, “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.” After twenty chants or so (or whatever number of chants you agree upon ahead of time), the players start raising their arms, lifting the person and seemingly levitating her above the ground.
One variation is to play this game as a call-and-response story. The player next to the person’s head begins the story with, “It was a dark and stormy night.” Each player (except the one lying on the ground) repeats the phrase one at a time, and then the player at the head continues, “It was cold and the road was icy.” Everyone repeats, then the head player says, “The car she was in spun out of control.” Everyone repeats, then: “And when they found her.” Everyone repeats, then: “She was light as a feather.” Everyone repeats, then: “And stiff as a board.” These last two sentences are repeated by the group several times, and then the entire group begins chanting “Light as a feather, stiff as a board” and lifting up the person who is lying down.
Is Your Slumber Party Guest Really Levitating?
The “Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board” slumber party game has its roots in a long tradition of unexplainable, seemingly miraculous feats of weightlessness. Levitation, from the Latin word levis, or “light,” means to float into the air, and numerous religions, from Christianity to Islam, have stories of levitation by shamans, mediums, saints, and those demonically possessed.
Saints who levitated were said to possess a luminous glow. Among the reported levitators was Saint Teresa of Avila, who levitated while in states of rapture in the 1680s and is usually painted with a bird, signifying her ability to fly; St. Edmund, around 1242; St. Joseph of Cupertino who astonished the Church with his flights in the 1600s; Catherine of Siena in the late fourteenth century; and St. Adolphus Liguori in 1777. Reports of levitation in more recent times include Father Suarez in