The Spillikins – a family museum of ancient games and fun

Elena worked in the field of tourism and Roman worked in the field of education. When tourists came to Ramon and visited the Oldenburg Palace, the main attraction of the village, they always asked what else there was to see there So the idea was born to create an object in Ramon where it would be possible to work with tourists and children. The Spillikins Useful Games Courtyard appeared as a family museum of ancient games and fun.

The Spillikins Useful Games Courtyard is a space where excursion-interactive programs devoted to traditional folk games and crafts are held on the territory of an old Russian farmstead.

The Spillikins Cradle program is an unforgettable immersion into the atmosphere of Russian peasant life through old folk games. Spillikins, cat and mouse, dogpile and other games, an old lathe for manufacturing wooden toys, and tea from historic ceramic utensils are the mandatory attributes of the program.

Each participant gets the opportunity to plunge into the childhood of our ancestors and to feel the atmosphere of Russian antiquity while playing the games in a real Russian log izba, turning toys on a machine, drinking tea, and interacting with animals at the “Fluffy Farmstead”.

During the game program, each participant will be able to:

– learn to play old Russian board and outdoor games (cat and mouse, dogpile, fleas in a bowl, spillikins, Easter hill, pancake games, and others);

– master the methods of turning wooden toys on a medieval turning machine;

– taste herbal tea from historical ceramic dishes;

– observe animals at the “Fluffy Farmstead” and feed them.

The program takes place on the territory of a real Russian farmstead, in an old Russian log izba and in an old garden.

Spillikins is a game. A real game, not the fictional one that we heard about only in the famous catch phrase. The spillikins are also the yard. The Spillikins Useful Games Courtyard. It is located next to the Oldenburg Palace in the village of Ramon, Voronezh Region. You can play wonderful Russian games there.

In the figurative sense, “playing spillikins” is to deal with trifles and nonsense, leaving aside the main and important things. If we play spillikins not in the figurative sense but literally, as they say, what do we leave aside? Perhaps boredom and monotony, routine and eternal vanity, anxiety and doubt? Exactly. Moreover, we gain something important and necessary, a valuable understanding of our children.

You take a good dozen, pleasant to the touch, warm, made of linden wood trinkets, and with an expression of mystery on your face you throw them in a bunch on the table …

This is not chess or cards, lotto or dominoes. It is spillikins.