For Egyptians, Eid Al Fitr isn’t just about having coffee (or shay b laban) in the morning with a piece of Kahk while watching your favorite masra7eya. It’s also about spending time with the people you love. Though normally, we’d be packing our bags to spend the long weekend on a beach somewhere right now, this Eid we have to stay put. The Covid-19 pandemic has, to say the least, rained on our Eid parade. However, as we’ve been doing this past year, we must adapt. So, to increase the quality of your quality time, here are 7 home-grown games that’ll keep you and your family entertained this Eid.
1. 2ool-a-meme
It’s a well-known fact that Egyptians ha.ve a hilarious sense of humor and this game proves that! It basically takes memes out of Facebook and into real life and allows you to induce the laughter yourself.
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The game can have up to 8 players. It has two stacks of cards, the situations stack, and the memes stack. Each player gets 8 situation cards. Then, the players must choose a judge among them, each turn a new judge is chosen. The judge draws a meme card and shows it to the players. The players then choose from the situation cards they have the situation most fitting for the meme. The judge decides which card was funniest and the winning player keeps the meme card as a point.
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The game also has many expansion packs including a mo7n expansion, a Ramadan 2020 expansion, and most recently, a zed expansion. Click here to buy 2oolameme.
2. 2ool aw e3mel
After 2oolameme was such a hit, 2oolameme’s creators launched 2ool aw e3mel. It’s a board game that includes questions and dares. Each person chooses a color and the youngest person in the group has to start. On the first turn, the player picks either a question or a dare but as they play they must choose according to where they’re standing in the game; if they’re on a red square they have to choose a dare, if blue, they answer a question.
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After answering a question or doing the dare, you get to take steps on the board. There are stations on the board, including a hammer that makes another player choose the dare you have to perform to a spring that allows you to jump 5 steps! Click here to know more about it.
3. Carnaval
This is 4 games in one box! First, there’s Habasathalak which is basically your favorite Aflam game with a twist. Instead of just acting out movies or series, each team member gets 90 seconds to act out celebrities and famous proverbs too. You get a point if you get 2 of the three guesses on the card right.
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Then, there’s Afashat, where each player reads out 2 famous lines from a movie/show. The team gets a point if they guess first. The third game is Kalam Kebeer, which is for when you want to get up close and personal with your players and ask them questions like what their most embarrassing moments were.
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Finally, there’s mo2asasa where one player draws a card with a place in Egypt on it and tells everyone except for two players. Each player asks questions until they figure out who knows what’s on the card and who doesn’t. Click here to know more about where to buy Carnaval.
4. Didi Asks
This game is great for building an authentic connection with someone. Each card has a thought-provoking question you get to ask the players and answer yourself. You get out of it knowing things you might have never thought to ask about otherwise.
5. Quarantivity
This is a board game with everything you need! Competition, because it has to have 2 teams and a minimum of 4 players, timed challenges, and mini-games in each game. There are 4 colored characters with punny names. The yellow one has activities all about words, it’s called JK Reading. The pink one, called Mama Lisa, is all about guessing things, it includes Pictionary and taboo.
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Green is Albert Brainstein and it’s all about trivia and Blue is Quentin Talentino, and from the name, it requires a lot of talent! It includes saying tongue-twister sentences and doing impersonations. The more cards you draw and activities you perform, the faster you’ll reach the center of the board and win the game. Click here for more info about it.
6. Cipher
The makers of Quarantivity recently launched Cipher. It’s also a board game. Two teams compete to try to guess 25 random words. Each team has a moderator and guessers. The moderator gives one-word hints to the guessers and the ones who guess all 25 words correctly and cross the board win! Click here to check it out.
7. Thebonfireexperience
Who doesn’t wish they were sitting around a fire roasting marshmallows while having a heartfelt conversation and some soulful music in the background? This game is all about giving you that intimate bonfire experience minus the actual fire. Each card has an artistic illustration indicative of the question on the other side. You draw, ask, and connect. Find more info about it here.
In these trying times, we come to appreciate the bonds we have with people more than anything. Though this Eid weekend might not go as you pictured it, with these games you’ll definitely share some thoughts and laughs. From our hearts to yours, Happy Eid!
