What is the game ‘Red light, green light’ called in various languages?

All children in Greece instantly win while in Finland they're fucked

In the Finnish version the player at the end doesn’t even have to say anything before turning around, they can just do so with no warning. You gotta make your way forward while also keeping a close eye on them.

The greek version is much shorter than what you would think from the english translation:

Kids in Greece probably play from island to island

[удалено]

Yeah, we're gonna need a source for this. I feel like OP just made it up. The comments are full of brits saying they've never heard of this. Not a single one so far has agreed.

Ireland checking in , never heard of "peep behind the curtain"

Mr Wolf no? Or am I remembering a different one

Based “Winnie the Pooh” enjoyer

I called it peep behind the curtain. I’m early 30s in the Midlands for context

Seems like I’m the only English person in this thread who has?!

The f is "peep behind the curtain"?? Closest we got to that game is "What's the time Mr Wolf?"

I've always known it as "Grandma's footsteps", but at least I have heard of being known as "What's the time Mr. Wolf"

Yeah never heard of that in the UK. What’s the Time Mr Wolf is the standard that I know of, although slightly different due to the counting rule of course.

I have never heard of that german "1,2,3 ox at the mountain". Sounds like that might be a term used in south Germany.

This feels like one of those "we asked some people in London and called it a day" situations

I'm from the UK, and I've known it as 'Grandma's Footsteps' or 'Hot Chocolate'

yeah i remember in year 1 we used to play whats the time mr wolf all the time

Came here to say this, I only knew it as what's the time Mr wolf!

Grew up in Northern Ireland and we called it red light green light. Wife is Scottish asked her and they called it black and white horses apparently.

We had Peep Behind the Curtain in Devon as well as What’s the Time Mr Wolf? I think we preferred Whats the Time Mr Wolf because it had counting in it.

What's the time Mr wolf is a fucking throwback

I called it peep behind the curtain and I was discussing with a friend at work and they looked at me like I had gone mad. I think only a few places called it that.

Tom scott actually did a video on why uk has so many names for games. Really cool

What tf is peep behind the curtain? Everybody knows it's what's the time Mr Wolf

Another what's the time mr wolf here. Never heard of that curtain thing, sounds more like the Wizard of Oz's memoir

Wait.

Grandma’s footsteps. What’s the time Mr Wolf was always a different game because the wolf told you how many steps to take. But yeah, peep behind the curtain is utter nonsense.

As Brit who immigrated to the US here, if my memory serves me right, What's the Time Mr Wolf is the British equivalent of Mother, May I

It’s a slightly different game because the wolf goes “dinner time!” at the end and chases everyone. The caught person becomes the wolf in the next round.

I'm pretty sure the danish one is "red, yellow, green, stop" but i may be wrong

[удалено]

I could run across the field by the time Greece gets around to turning. Meanwhile in Norway we got it down to two syllables, "Rødt lys".

I don't know, but I guess it's more like røøøøødtttttt.... lys! Correct?

In greece we usually say "1,2,3, STOP!" stop in english too lol or we say "day or night"

Cukr, káva, limonáda, čaj, rum, BUM!

Sugar

All those words (and the subsequent comment) are the same in slovenian.

Seno sláma

For Russia you got completely wrong game. One listed in the map is played on spot (without crossing a distance from one line to another) and the rules are completely different ("guess what I am" type of game).

Same goes for Latvia: "The slower you go the further you'll get" (Lēnāk brauksi, tālāk tiksi).

As always with those maps from atlasova, half of it is wrong.

I live how all the top posts are saying "this is wrong for my country," yet the post has thousands of upvotes. People will believe anything..

”Baba Yaga is looking” is scary AF

Tbh in Poland Baba Yaga isn't as spooky as she was in the Slavic folklore. Most people think about her only as a witch living in the forest, not a dangerous demon. :0

Baba Jaga Patrzy !

Raz, dwa, trzy baba Jaga pa-trzy!

When you hear “Baba Yaga”, who do you think of?

I don't know, reading the newspaper is a bit terrifying...

Swedish is ”Red lantern stop” or ”Red green lantern stop”. Where’d you get cheese from 😂😂😂??

We only ever called it "1-2-3 rött ljus" in school. Cheese/ost makes absolutely no sense.

Maybe it’s regional? I grew up in Umeå and we said 123 ost

Yeah, I work with pre school kids and I've only ever heard it called "red lantern, stop!", "red, green lantern, stop!" or "1, 2, 3 star!".

Vet inte ens om jag har hört något annat än 3,6,9. Det verkar jag vara ensam om...

[удалено]

”Ett två tre - rött ljus!” is all everyone I know have used, I have heard tales of people who use ”ett två tre - ost”, but they are morally incorrect

I norrland körde vi 123 ost. Vi gjorde det då grundskolan och alla verkar vara överens i min gymnasieklass. Så det heter så i Umeå i alla fall

Had never heard it as well. But found a old Fragbite thread. Seems like Norrläningarna are scared of lights and lanturns so they said cheese instead.

We used to say "under hökens vingar, kom!" (I believe) which is a variation of the game I guess where you pick a color and anyone with that color on their clothing may run.

What is the source for this? Never heard this one for germany, seems like a regional thing, which is projected on all of us for whatever reason

I think they just used the english Wikipedia entry. We played ox on the mountain in austria, but I never heared of thunder, weather lightning

[удалено]

I'm from Hesse and I know it as "1, 2, 3, 4 Ochs am Berg"

MIRROR

PEILI

MIRROR

Never played ‘peep behind the curtain’ it was always What’s the Time Mr Wolf

Or grandmas footsteps

Thank you omg, am from Oz and couldn't for the life of me remember the name, was annoying me so much!

Mr Wolf is a different game, same setup, not a single common rule.

for Poland:

Never heard of "peep behind the curtain" (UK).

oh wow they took it from that page and read it wrong too, D- for literacy right there

Finland: "why waste time say lot word when one word do trick?"

I'm from Finland and when I used to play this game we didn't even say the word. Why say anything if you can just turn and look?

Actually that's not how it works in here. We are not given any tips on how long will the "mirror" still watch the wall. It's a game of prudence.

:gun shots ring out:

Little monkey of the Chinese? How is no one taking about this lmfao

I don't know if they really say that in Portugal because I'm not from there, but it would rime in Portuguese.

In portuguese three (três) and chinese (chinês) rime and 'little monkey' (macaquinho) has the right number of sylables to make it sound good

Didn’t make it out of Portugal either, here in Brazil it’s “little potato 1,2,3”.

"Little monkey of the chinese" is "um dois três... macaquinho do chinês" as "chinês" rimes with 3 (três), it also comes with a little simple melody.

They predicted John Xina.

Around the Porto area it's just Little Chinese Monkey

-99999 social credit

ehm what? 1,2,3 cheese is something you say when a child needs to smile for a picture. never heard of red light green light

Not true for Ireland

Not true for Scotland and from other comments it's not true for England as well

Not true for England

North West England here and we called it "What's the time Mr Wolf"

For Slovakia, we generally used "Forks, spoons, knives!" but also the variant seen in Czechia is possible.

Never known it as anything other than 'Whats the time Mr Wolf?'

I totally forgot we said 'Anne maria koekoek'

If someone in Scotland ever said the phrase "peep behind the curtain" they'd be swiftly sent away for a very long time.

Portuguese children: “little monkey of the chinese😛😛😛”

Lmaooooo

davul zurna 1 2 3??? i have never heard something like that before.

Me neither

Me neither, we call it "ebe tura 1 2 3"

Greek one reminds me of that doctor who episode, Blink

What's this about? I've never heard about ti in either Swiss German or German.

"Zitiglese/ reading the newspapers" is pretty common in the swissgerman parts of switzerland... At least in Bern and Zurich but I guess it's not that different in the other cantons

zitigläse zitigläse STOP

Really? I definitely remember playing "Zii-tiig-lää-se!"

123 Ochs am Berg haben wir in Süddeutschland gespielt

Never heard these expressions in northern Germany either. I know the game as "One cup of tea with sugar" or "fisherman, fisherman, how deep's the water?". Although the latter also specifies the kind of movement used (or mimicked)

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ochs_am_Berg

Bulgaria, you lose your social credit

Never heard it called that here. When we were kids, that game was called "Indian eye", as in Native-American.

where are mods, this map is completely wrong and totally made up. 9/10 comments says it is wrong remove it?

First time I see it called "Winnie the Pooh" lol. We called it "Captain, Captain" as in "Captain, is the sea calm?"

For Spain is '1, 2, 3, el escondite inglés' which means 'English hide and seek' not 'chicken'

I assumed it was this (and this nonsense map is still wrong either way):

tiene muchos nombres, se vé, varía por la zona creo, había otro usuario diciendo que es "el pajarito inglés", en cambio en donde vivo es " el pollito inglés"

En Andalucía, zona de Sevilla al menos, es "1, 2, 3 pollito inglés" (derivado del escondite), que es lo que aparece en el mapa "1,2,3 little English chicken"

In Catalonia it’s 1 2 3 pica paret

I always said '1 2 3 pollito inglés' when I was a kid

I thought escondite inglés was hide and seek

Yo siempre lo he oído como en el mapa "un dos tres, el pollito inglés".

"1,2,3 pollito inglés" is how I played it in my childhood in Venezuela, guess whoever brought it to Latin America was from the same area.

Are english speakers upvoting this? Because everyone seems to say that their language is wrong. Mine is wrong as well by the way.

Dutch is correct

All the English speakers are saying it's wrong for their countries, too... Who the heck is upvoting this?

Belgium/ France is correct

Little monkey of the Chinese lmao

I feel like "1, 2, 3, little monkey of the Chinese" is not getting the recognition it deserves in the top comments.

Wtf, Portugal?

Lmao I guess it's to rhyme with the number 3. Chinese is "chinês" and three is "três"

Of course the Dutch have to be special.

Special as it's one that appears to be correct unlike most of these.

Which has its charm of course

For Spain there is actually different names in Spanish, let alone other languages in the country.

Estoy seguro que todos los paises tienen variaciones regionales, simplemente se representa el más usado.

Didn't stop Netflix from google translating the show from the english version and just saying Green Light Red light. Pretty sad.

The U.K. is “What’s the time Mr Wolf”

In Spain it’s “escondite Inglés” which translates to “English hideout” not “little English chicken”

There are like 20 different versions in Spain.

Anyone from Portugal here who can offer an explanation?

Três (three) rhymes with Chinês (Chinese).

The spanish traduction is so wrong. Whe call it "el escondite ingles" that basicalymeans english hide and seek

bad shitpost

feels like bullshit

In Greece you say the whole phrase over and over again and each time the runners can choose between day or night. If they chose day that the spotter turns around if they choose night the spotter doesn't turn but they have to stop while they speak. So if your friend is about to fall you can say day to sabotage him. Usually the spoter can turn regardless of the runners choice but this how i played it.

I’m British and I remember playing “peep behind the curtain” when I was a kid. Admittedly that was in the 80’s and I’ve not really heard it played since and most people just play the very different game of “what’s the time mr wolf” where the only similarity is in the starting setup.

Why does this sub consistently know nothing about the UK

Serbia: Swipper, no swiping!

That’s from Dora the Explorer?

I have literally never once played a game called that and I'm from Serbia, the actual game here is called "Black Cat 1 2 3"

Fun fact: in Italy it's a common misconception that this game is called "1, 2, 3, stella!" ("1, 2, 3, star!", as rightly said in the map). The actual name is "1, 2, 3, stai là!" (which translates to "1, 2, 3, stay there!"), but due to the similarity of the pronunciation of "stai là" and "stella" while speaking fast, like during the game, its name has effectively changed.

Fun fact: this fun fact derived from a YouTube video from The Jackal and nobody ever confirmed it's really true

Nah noi abbiamo sempre detto un due tre stella, ma anche stai la non suona male

what's this game about? I can't guess it based on the translation in my country(romania)

A person stands with their back to a group of people and says the name of the game, while they do this all the people in the group is supposed to run towards this person. However, when the person turns around everyone has to stand completely still. If anyone moves they’re out (or has to start over). The goal is to pass the person at the front.

We called it "la perete" when i was a kid.

not true for Austria. We always called it "Der Hase läuft über das Feld" — "the rabbit is running over the field".

Regional differences - I never heard yours for example. I know "Donner, Wetter, Blitz" and "Zimmer, Küche, Kabinett".

-9999999 social credit points to Bulgaria!

This is a lot of rubbish! In the Scotland the most similar thing we have is “what’s the time mr wolf”.

I'm pretty sure I've played red light/green light in Scotland but we just called it that. 90% of the time it's "what's the time Mr wolf?"

This thread is fascinating.

We also call it ‘Annemaria Koekoek’ in the south of the Netherlands

Statues that don’t move…

In ireland its red light green light not what ever shit yee stuck in. Also what time is it Mr wolf was better

In Catalan is: " 1,2,3, picaparet."

Never heard of such a game. What's it like?

În Romania it's mirror as well

BREAKING NEWS:

Greece of course had to include some philosophy.

In Catalonia it is called "Pica paret" meaning something like "Hit the wall"

Bro Greece pick something shorter

In Greek its a bit shorter: Αγαλματάκια ακούνητα, αμίλητα, αγέλαστα, μέρα ή νύχτα;

Everyone is talking about how it's not called "peep behind the curtain" in Britain but can we talk about how creepy the Greek version sounds?

In Iceland we have “1, 2, 3, 4, 5, dimmalimm”,

French Canadian : 1, 2, 3, Soleil (sun)

Greek one is pretty metal, too bad they took away Peloponnese though.

I don't know for the others but I can safely say the French one is correct.

This post is stupid af

It’s called what’s the time mr wolf. What the fuck is peep behind the curtain.

Im swedish and we call it röda lyktan which translates to red light

this does not seem accurate. in sweden its called "ett två tre rött ljus" (123 red light) and others seem confused as to what peep behind the curtain is.

Damn Portugal got no chill

All these people talking about what's the time mr wolf, which is not the same game. Its similar, but not the same game as red light green light.

Spain one is wrong, we call it "escondite inglés" which would be "English hide-and-seek"

Little english chicken in Spain?

Nah im in spain and always known it as escondite inglés

Nah nah in the U.K. it’s either ‘Grandma’s Footsteps’ or ‘What’s the Time Mr. Wolf?’. This is on some bullshit.

Not true about Spain. It is “123. Escondite Inglés “. Escondite (literally hiding place” ) is what in English is called “hide and seek”. So the translation would be “the English hide and seek”. Not chicken anywhere

In Catalonia it's "Pica paret", I thought it was in all of Spain until I met people who called it "jardín inglés".

Uhhhhhhh no. In the U.K (or at least where I'm from), I've only ever heard "red light, green light" or "sly Fox"

Greece turning it into a horror game

Here in Israel we probaly have the wierdest one yet, we call it "דג מלוח", which loosely translates to "Salty Fish".

OP are you a troll? If so, bravo! If not, what the hell are some of these names? The UK and Ireland one in particular is so wrong. It’s either “what time is it mr wolf” or “red light green light 1 2 3”

If you haven't played Baba Yaga, you don't know what fear is.

Seems like literally every single one of these is wrong haha.

Italy is right

Estonia is right too

France is right.