Прятки с напёрстком и другие игры «холодно-горячо»

Party game

Hunt the thimble (also known as hide the thimble or hide the handkerchief in both the US and the UK) is a party game in which one person hides a thimble, or other small object, somewhere in the room, while all other players wait outside. (In some versions of the game, it must be hidden in plain sight.) When everyone comes back in, they race to locate the hidden object. The first to find it is the winner, and hides it for the next game. and other names for it include hide the object and hide the key. William Wells Newell described a version called thimble in sight in his 1883 Games and Songs of American Children. The game is known in various European countries. It is called cache tampon in France. In Germany the game of Topfschlagen involves a blindfolded player trying to find a pot guided, by calls of hot or cold, and similar versions (without the blindfold) are played in Poland (Ciepło zimno) and in Russia (Kholodno goryacho, both meaning "hot and cold"). The game is played under names such as La candelita (The Little Fire) in Spanish speaking countries.

The seekers must cover their eyes and ears or leave the designated game area while the hider hides a small, pre selected object. When the hider says to come and find it, or after the seekers have counted to a specific number, usually sixty or one hundred, the seekers come out and attempt to be the first to find the object. When a seeker has the object in hand, he or she alerts the other players. Brian Sutton Smith and other writers put this in a category of "central person" games which give one individual child a central role. The set up can be reversed with that role given to a single seeker, while all the other players try to keep an object hidden from the odd one out, either by sending him out of the room while hiding it, or by passing it round behind their backs. This is a common way of organising 'Hide the Key' or 'Hunt the Slipper'.

In some versions of the game, the hider tell the searchers what "temperature" they are based on proximity to the hidden object—the closer they get, the hotter they are; thus, the farther they are from the object, the colder they are. Other variations involve only one person leaving the room and everybody else hiding the object. In 1766 Oliver Goldsmith described it being played in The Vicar of Wakefield, calling it a "primaeval pastime". Both one seeker and one hider approaches have been associated with Hot Boiled Beans. A seeker may be called to enter the room and look for something hidden with, "Hot boiled beans and butter; walk in and find your supper!" This can be traced back to at least the mid 19th century. Several similar rhymes from different parts of England were recorded by 19th century folklorist Alice Gomme. They were sung or recited in games with one or more hiders: for example, "Little pigs come to supper/Hot boiled beans and ready butter." Other names were 'Hot Broad Beans' and 'Hot Beans and Butter.' In the US, the variations 'Hot Beans and Butter' and 'Hot Peas and Butter' require that the hidden item be a belt, which is placed in a secret location by a single hider. The other players are seekers. The first seeker to locate the belt can then attempt to whip the other players with it as they run for the safety of a designated home base. A modern and more adult variation of Huckle Buckle Beanstalk is Geocaching.