The Golden Gate Is Open is a fun and easy game to play with a few friends. It can be played outdoors or inside, wherever there is enough room to run around a little. It is a simple and easy game without any real winner or losers.
How to play:
• To play the game there should be at least three people, but there is no limit to how many can participate.
• Players should pair up in two lines.
• Players reach across lines and hold hands above their heads.
• It should form a shape like a tunnel.
• Players should sing the following rhyme:
Golden gate was opened, unlocked by a golden key
But if you are late to enter, you will lose your head
Whether it’s him, whether it’s she…
Will be swept away by a broom.
• While the players holding hands sing, one player should run though the archway as quickly as possible to avoid being captured.
• At the end of the archway, the runner should join hands with whomever is at the end to form part of the arch.
• Then the next player should run through the archway and repeat this process.
• The round is over when the rhyme ends.
• At the end of the rhyme, archway players should lower their hands to trap whichever player is running through the archway.
• You can sing the rhyme as fast or slow as desired to make the game easier or harder.
There is a second version of the game. Instead of player’s trading places after the runner passes through the archway, the runner keeps passing through the archway. The archway players try to trap the runner at the end of the rhyme. If the player escapes the rhyme starts over. If the runner is captured then they must switch places with an archway player.
