Drinking has always been one of the most effective ways to socialize, whether it is a small gathering or a big one, and because one of the reasons why people drink is to have fun, "drinking games" have been created by those who are creative.
One would think that these drinking games were only created in the recent times. But the truth is, ancient times had them as well.
For all one knows Spartans could have been playing beer pong as well. So here is a list of ancient drinking games that people used to practice:
Jungfrauenbecher ("maiden's cup")/ wagers cup
The cup took the shape of a woman with a wide skirt that formed a cup when inverted. The woman also carried a pail or a bowl above her head which swiveled to remain upright, effectively creating two cups in one. During the wedding feast, the groom had to toast by drinking from the skirt cup without spilling any wine from the pivoting bowl, from which the bride then had to drink.
Sumbel
A sumbel was a Nordic tradition that uses a horn (a cup was also acceptable) wherein the drink was poured within, drank and passed around. It was regarded as a good way to bond around with the people around you. The drinks in a sumbel were only alcoholic drinks and nothing else. There were three rounds in a sumbel, first round was for the gods, second round was dedicated to heroes, and the third was for loved ones and personal ancestors.
Jiuling
It is a drinking game that has its origins sometime during China's Zhou Dynasty. There were two types of Jiuling, Common jiuling and Literary Jiuling. The former was the most popular, since it was mostly played by the masses. It was a simple game that involved each player taking a turn and then taking a drink. What happens between turns are random things that the person who drank before says and do. Literary jiuling was more popular with the upper classes, as it required a higher education. The game involved riddles, and poems, and such.
Pennying
The history of pennying is murky but it was game played by many in old Britain. The rules of pennying was that there would be only one penny used in the game, whoever sneaks the penny in someone's drink, that someone needs to chug the whole drink "to save the drowning queen" (penny's in Britain had the queens face on it). The person who drank can now sneak the penny to whoever he/she chooses.
Passatella
The concept of passatella was to expose the inequality of life.The first thing to do was to play a game in order to determine a boss and an underboss. The boss would then give the underboss a drink. The boss will decide who he can offer drinks to, but first they need permission from the boss and underboss, but both can deny giving a drink to the other and will voice out as to why using explicit reasoning. Passatella mostly ended up in violence as people get drunker.
