Recently, the Korean drama Squid Game became a massive hit around the world, lots of people are paying attention to Korean traditional play culture in the drama. Several traditional games such as “Ddakjigi”, “Mugughwa Flower Bloomed” and “Bead Ball” that were even forgotten by some Koreans appeared in the series and gained huge popularity. Also, it is easy to find Youtubers reenacting certain scenes in dramas or enjoying those games with foreigners who were unfamiliar with them. The Asian Culture Research Institute at Gachon University holds a cultural festival every year, and this time it promoted the play culture from various countries by offering posters and calligraphy that introduce play cultures around the world.

 The theme of the contest was “Play Culture from Around the World”, and any Gachon University students including foreign students interested in this contest could participate in it as a team or an individual. The applicants had to write their name, department, contact information, the purpose and explanation of the most important work briefly on the application form. Moreover, a short video explaining the play should be attached. Six people (six teams) who made original creations that had never won in domestic or foreign contest were awarded prizes, including a grand prize (one team), two excellence awards (2 teams), and three participation awards (three teams). In addition, the awardees were presented with the prize money; the grand prize of 1 million won, the excellence prize of 800,000 won and the encouragement prize of 500,000 won. Also, 20 mileage points were given to all participants. Now I would like to introduce the representative winning work that won the first prize.

 Park Eun-seo was the winner in the contest and the name of the work is “Let's Play Together”. She compared the earth to a house and expressed the enjoyment traditional games in various ways in a single house in her work. The characters are circles in shape of the earth, and we can see them playing in traditional clothes from each country. We can easily recognize through the poster that all of them are enjoying Mexico's "Pinata," Korea's "Ttakjigi" and "Making Dalgona," China's "Kongju," Britain's "Curling," the U.S. "Spoon Egg Race," and Japan's "Darumaotoshi." Park Eun-seo mentioned that people from all over the world cannot play together in person due to COVID-19, but if COVID-19 ends someday, the walls of the house in the picture will be torn down, then everyone can enjoy the game together.

 The work made by Park Eun-seo which won the grand prize, served as a good opportunity to announce that there are many traditional games all over the world. I learned a new lesson that there are more deep-rooted traditional games not only in Korea but also around the world. There were more than I expected. Although this article introduced only one work, why don't you take this chance to find the play culture from various countries and choose your favorite one, then enjoy it with your friends? I hope COVID-19 virus end soon and people around the world can enjoy various games.