Hello everybody,
I want to know more about the kite flying game, like where does the kite flying game come from, why do many people like this game, in what countries do have a kite flying festival, and what are the different customs concerning kite flying around the world?
Whatever you know about the kite flying game, please share with me!
Have a nice day!
Hi Hoadong,
the most fasmous kite-event I know is celebrated on a Danish island called Fanø. The village is Rømø. Albeit I once loved kite-flying a lot I´ve never been there.
Michael
Hello Michael,
Thank you for the information.
The picture is really nice!
You know? Recently I have searched articles on the internet which can answer the question “Where does the kite flying origin from?” The articles I have found say different about this. Some say this game comes from China, whilst others say it comes from India. I think it is really hard to figure it out. However, I really enjoyed reading them because those articles helped me to learn more about an interesting game, which exists in many countries in the world.
Have a nice day!
Hi Haodong,
Maybe wikipedia is not available in your country, so I had a quick look for you.
1 History
2 Materials
3 Practical uses
Here’s what I found under ‘History’:
Kites were used approximately 2,800 years ago in China, where materials ideal for kite building were readily available: silk fabric for sail material, fine, high-tensile-strength silk for flying line, and resilient bamboo for a strong, lightweight framework. Alternatively, the kite authors Clive Hart and Tal Streeter hold that leaf kites existed far before that time in what is now Indonesia, based on their interpretation of cave paintings on Muna Island off Sulawesi. The kite was said to be the invention of the famous 5th century BC Chinese philosophers Mozi and Lu Ban. By at least 549 AD paper kites were being flown, as it was recorded in that year a paper kite was used as a message for a rescue mission. Ancient and medieval Chinese sources list other uses of kites for measuring distances, testing the wind, lifting men, signaling, and communication for military operations. The earliest known Chinese kites were flat (not bowed) and often rectangular. Later, tailless kites incorporated a stabilizing bowline. Kites were decorated with mythological motifs and legendary figures; some were fitted with strings and whistles to make musical sounds while flying.
One ancient design, the fighter kite, became popular throughout Asia. Most variations, including the fighter kites of India, Thailand and Japan, are small, flat, rough, diamond-shaped kites made of paper, with a tapered bamboo spine and a balanced bow. Although the rules of kite fighting varied from culture to culture, the basic strategy was to maneuver the swift kite in such a way as to cut the opponent’s flying line.
Rider with kite in Konrad Kyeser’s technical treatise Bellifortis (ca. 1405)
In Europe unambiguous drawings of kites first appeared in print in the Netherlands and England in the 17th century, pennon-type kites that evolved from military banners dating back to Roman times and earlier were flown during the Middle Ages. Joseph Needham says that the earliest European description of a kite comes from the Magia Naturalis written in 1589 by the Italian polymath Giambattista della Porta (1535–1615).
Hang gliders are based on the Rogallo wing, originally marketed as a mylar self-inflating kite named the Flexikite.
In 1750, Benjamin Franklin published a proposal for an experiment to prove that lightning is electricity by flying a kite in a storm that appeared capable of becoming a lightning storm. Benjamin Franklin wisely never performed his experiment, but on May 10, 1752, Thomas-François Dalibard of France conducted Franklin’s experiment (using a 40-foot (12 m)-tall iron rod instead of a kite) and extracted electrical sparks from a cloud.
The period from 1860 to about 1910 became the “golden age of kiting”. Kites started to be used for scientific purposes, especially in meteorology, aeronautics, wireless communications and photography; reliable manned kites were developed as well as power kites. Invention of powered airplane diminished interest in kites.World War II saw a limited use of kites for military purposes (see Focke Achgelis Fa 330 for example). Since then they are used mainly for recreation.
Kite is quite a powerful word and is used quite regularly in Idioms etc
high as a kite and *high as the sky
Go chase yourself! and Go climb a tree!; Go fly a kite!; Go jump in the lake!
Inf. Go away and stop bothering me! Bob: Get out of here. Bill! You’re driving mecrazy! Go chase yourself’. Bill: What did I do to you? Bob: You’re just in the way. Bill: Dad, can I have ten bucks? Father: Go climb a tree! Fred: Stop pestering me, John. Go jump in the lake! John: What did I do? Bob: Well, Bill, don’t you owe me some money? Bill: Go fly a kite!
See also: chase
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
be as high as a kite
(informal) to behave in a silly and excited way because you have taken drugs or drunk a lot of alcohol I tried to talk to her, but she was as high as a kite.
(informal) to feel very happy and excited Winning the prize gave my self-confidence a tremendous boost; I felt as high as a kite for several days afterwards.
See also: high
fly a kite
to suggest a possible explanation for something I’m just flying a kite, but I suspect he was in love with her.
to make a suggestion in order to see what other people think about your idea I’m just flying a kite, really, but do you think there would be any demand for a course on European art?
See also: fly
Go fly a kite! (mainly American informal)
something that you say in order to tell someone who is annoying you to go away Go fly a kite! It’s just not funny any more.
See also: fly
kite-flying (British & Australian)
the act of telling people about an idea or plan so that you can find out what they think about it Mr Baker’s hint about US intervention in the war was undoubtedly an exercise in kite-flying.
See fly a kite, Go fly a kite!
Wow, Hoadong you seem to have opened a pretty interesting topic here.
Ralf´s explanation is what we´re told here quite often and Jamie´s essay offers us a deeper inside into the depts of the native souls. lol Thank you Ralf and Jamie for your very interesting points of view about kiting.
Michael
Hello Ralf, Jamie and Michael,
Many thanks!
Michael, I agree with you that Ralf and Jamie’s messages are very interesting information about kites.
Ralf, yes, Wikipedia is available in my country. I have read it several times. However, I want to learn more information and stories around the kites.
Jamie, thank you for the lesson about the “kite” idioms. I enjoyed reading it and it was very useful to me.
I am going to share with you what I read last week about the kites.
Kite flying was a sport or a game in some cultures. I have read a post on a blog about the kite festival in Parkistan. According to the author of the blog, after the freedom of Pakistan, kite flying became very popular especially in the city of Lahore and people started to celebrate the annual festival of kite flying, called “Basant”. The author also told that some users have used the dangerous strings and gambling put this game in a negative light. For example, some people used metal and chemical strings to cut the kites of the other parties. Chemical string took only some seconds to cut the kites. Many people started to use chemical string on the day of Basant. Because the chemical string was such a terrible that, it could easily cut the throat of a bike rider, the Government banned the use of metal string in the Pakistan.
This is a DongHo folklore print woodcut about the kite flying.
Please enjoy watching it and if you know any art works, a painting or a sculture, which has the kite image please share with me.
Thank you.
Have a nice day!