Pass the Ba'

 Kirkwall, the capital of Scotland's Orkney Islands, is known for its grand cathedral, manicured palace gardens, and 200-year-old whisky distillery. Simple stone facades match the tempered atmosphere of the seaside town. Visit Kirkwall on Christmas or New Year's Day, however, and you will find its winding streets and narrow alleys riddled with barricades. Sealed doors and boarded up windows temporarily protect shops and homes from more than just chilly winter air. Twice each year, throngs of men proudly sporting rugby shirts and soccer jerseys gather in Kirkwall for an epic match of will and determination that takes over the entire city: Ba'.

The game of Ba' is a form of mass football which has been played in the streets of Kirkwall for hundreds of years. Local legend holds that Ba' began in the 15^th century when Kirkwall’s ruler allowed the skull of a beheaded enemy to be kicked through the town by zealous citizens. The contemporary, much less violent version of Ba' dates to 1850 and has very simple rules. Two teams, the Uppies and the Doonies (or "Up-the-Gates" and "Doon-the-Gates") compete for possession of the ba', a small ball, using both their hands and feet. Team membership is traditionally determined by the individual’s birthplace in relation to St. Magnus Cathedral, or by longstanding family allegiance to either side. Players must touch the ba' to one of two goals to secure a win. The Doonies attempt to submerge the ba' in Kirkwall Bay, while the Uppies try to carry the ba' to a wall at the opposite end of town.

Don’t let Ba's straightforward rules and monosyllabic name fool you: the game involves both sweat and strategy. Participants will do nearly anything—push, shove, scratch, and bite—to propel the coveted ba' towards either goal. On both Christmas and New Year’s Day, about 200 players gather on Broad Street, opposite St. Magnus Cathedral, for Men’s Ba'. (Boys Ba', for those under 16, takes place in the morning. Women’s Ba' has only been played twice, on Christmas 1945 and New Year’s Day 1946.) Surrounded by crowds of noisy spectators, the ba' is thrown up at 1:00pm at Mercat Cross and immediately encircled by a tangle of competitors. The object of everyone's desire, the ba' itself, is a handmade cork ball covered with leather, weighing in at about three pounds. The thick throng of people, called a scrum, takes on a life of its own as it moves through the streets. Sometimes the scrum suddenly breaks as the ba' escapes, but the pseudo-organism inevitably reforms as the battle for possession ensues. Players snake through tight allies, fake breaks, and scramble onto rooftops, all in an effort to tear the trophy away from the opposing team.

A typical match lasts about five hours, while some games stretch on for eight hours or more. One person on the winning side is awarded the ba', which will hang in his living room window as a symbol of ultimate triumph. Because of time-honored practices of camaraderie, serious injuries are rare, and local attempts by authorities to ban Ba' have been unsuccessful. Today mass football remains in only a few towns in Scotland and the United Kingdom, so if you happen to be passing through the Orkney Islands in December or January, get in touch with your inner sheep and join the crowds in Kirkwall screaming "Ba'!"

Sources:
www.bagame.com
www.orkneyjar.com/tradition/bagame
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/why-we-compete/2007/12/tradition.html?hpid=multimedia1&hpv=national