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Miscellaneous Feline Name-Related Topics
The Cat's Cradle
The name, 'Cat's Cradle' is given to a very old game played by
children all over the world. String is wound back and forth over the fingers of
both hands creating a pattern. Then transferred to a second child, whilst
creating a new pattern in the process. This is then repeated several times,
making a different pattern each time.
An old folk custom in Eastern Europe involved securing a cat in
a cradle one month before a wedding, then after the ceremony, carrying it to the
newlyweds' house and rocking it back and forth in their presence. It was claimed
this would ensure that the bride would have a early pregnancy. This could easily
have been the origin of the child's game.
Similar games are played by Congo tribesmen and Inuit, with a
somewhat more magical significance. With string patterns being formed and
altered in the belief that it will influence the path of the sun. In these cases
the sun is thought of as a 'solar cat' being symbolically ensnared within the
string patterns. Equating the cat and the sun in this way could also be
responsible for the origin of The Cat's Cradle.
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