Neptune Day is a fun and vibrant summer holiday. It is celebrated in health camps, kindergartens, resorts, in resort towns and on passenger ships. The history of the holiday is connected with the ancient traditions of seafarers who tried to appease the lord of the sea and ask him for a fair wind when crossing the equator. Before that, Neptune forced recruits to pass a test, which necessarily included dousing with water.
Tradition of celebration
In Soviet times, Neptune Day was widely celebrated in pioneer camps. It was carried out in the middle of summer or separately for each shift of resting children. The main hero of the holiday is the lord of the seas and rivers - Neptune. His retinue can be mermaids, devils, fish, frogs, pirates, kikimors, and aquatic.
For children on the festival of Neptune usually arrange sports competitions or relay races. The performance necessarily includes bathing in a pond or dousing all those present with water from buckets, watering cans, mugs and so on. Therefore, similar entertainments are held on a hot day.
Neptune Day Scenarios
There are several scenarios that the festival organizers use:
- Competitions for the Cup of Neptune. This is the easiest option when children are divided into teams and invited to participate in sports contests.
- Search for a stolen character or item. In this case, a theatrical performance is played before the children. They have to save Neptune, kidnapped by the devils. Or find a stolen trident, a lost mermaid, a pirate treasure. To do this, it is necessary to pass the tests proposed by fairy-tale heroes.
- Boat trip to the islands. Children are divided into teams and handed route sheets. Moving to the indicated points, they carry out tasks of fairy-tale heroes related to the water theme. For their efforts, they can be awarded tokens in the form of pearls, shells, starfish or fish. The winners will receive a sweet prize (ice cream, lemonade) at the central point.
Water competitions
What activities can be offered to children on Neptune Day at the camp? If there is a pond nearby (river, sea, pool), most of the competitions are held in it. Of course, the organizers should take care of the safety of participants in the competition.
So, offer the children the following games:
- Fairy-tale characters scatter inflatable toys on the surface of the reservoir. They need to be assembled by competitors. The team with the most toys wins.
- Teams bathe in a pond, but they must run out of it by a whistle and, as quickly as possible, line up in line with their height, foot size, eye color (from light to dark) or the first letter of the name.
- Team members line up in two lines at a distance of 10 meters from each other. They are given an air mattress, at which it is necessary to swim this distance and pass the trophy to the next participant. The swim time is detected.
- Teams line up at arm's length, with the captain in front. It is necessary to pass the ball overhead from the first player to the last. When this happened, the participant, standing at the end, floats in the head of the team, takes a place in front of the captain. Passing the ball continues until the players take up their starting position. The team that finished the baton first wins.
- "Captains competition". According to the whistle, you need to glide through the water, lowering your face into it and stretching your arms forward. You can work only with your feet, air cannot be taken. The winner is a child who swims further than his rivals.
Land games
If there is no reservoir nearby, this is no reason to cancel the holiday of Neptune. The following contests can be offered to children:
- Water-carriers. At some distance from each other, pots are placed: one empty, the other with water. It is necessary for a certain time to fill an empty container with liquid, transferring it in a spoon. The team that collects the most water wins.
- Guess. With their eyes closed, the children feel for the object in the water and determine what it is.
- "Get the apple." You need to pull out an apple from their basin with water without helping yourself with your hands.
- "Your sloth." Team members put on T-shirts and get water bottles with cork holes. Task: dousing each other. Then the liquid from the T-shirts is squeezed into the basin. The team that gets wet more wins.
- "Bumps". Paper mugs are laid out at a distance, a swamp must pass over them, without stumbling. To complicate the task, you can put on flippers on children.
- "The cleverest". Teams take turns calling the inhabitants of the ponds. It is impossible to repeat. The team that names the last occupant wins.
The end of the holiday
The ending of Neptune's Day should be bright and memorable. It is difficult to imagine without universal douche or bathing under the leadership of a fairy retinue. And, of course, the results of the competitions should be summed up, well-deserved prizes awarded.
In camp conditions, rewarding can be delayed until the evening disco. Offer children to dress up in costumes of marine inhabitants or fairy-tale characters, hold a competition for the most original outfit.
Neptune Day is a fun holiday, during which the guys improve their motor skills and strengthen their health. The task of adults is to make it fun, joyful and as safe as possible for their wards.