Ibble dibble to you too!

What’s that you say? Ibble dibble? Such nonsense! Exactly. Let me elaborate.

The first time I went to England with my (now) husband/ (then) boyfriend, he warned me in advance. His family plays party games.  “Party games? I inquired. “What kind of party games?” Well, as it turns out, they not only partake in a myriad of party games, it’s sort of like their own religion. It’s a passion, really. An essential tradition. It’s like they’re proclaiming “Hey, I know I’m not a kid anymore. But it’s the holiday season and I WILL act like a child if I want to, damn it!”

Maybe that’s why I like them so much.

 It’s utterly hilarious. They even have a home grown game where the loser ends up with a face full of baking flower. Yup, you betcha. Maturity at its best, I assure you. Uhmm, maybe not.

But I digress. Ibble dibble.

Ibble dibble is a group game, much like Thumper, for those of you that chose to involve yourself in drinking games in your past. The group sits in a circle and each person is assigned a number, moving sequentially around the room.

The person who is assigned #1 is not simply #1. They are “Ibble dibble #1”, of course. And it goes like this.  #1 looks at #5 (or another number if they so choose) and says “Ibble dibble number 1 with no dibbles to Ibble dibble number 5 with no dibbles”.

What’s a dibble? I’m so glad you asked.

A dibble is a round black mark on your forehead, created by the furious rubbing of a cork that has been burned to have an ashy finish.

How do you get a dibble? Good question! Your thinking cap is firmly on today!

You get a dibble when you make any mistakes. If you stammer over a word or say the wrong word. Or if you pause too long. You also are “dibbled” (yes, like Google, “to dibble” is now a verb) if you incorrectly identify the number of dibbles acquired by yourself or the person you are addressing. The game continues with people laughing hysterically and acquiring dibbles. The last person to be without dibbles is the winner. Given that we are all typically drinking, or considered by society to be young and immature, mistakes are not hard to come by.

The really intriguing part of the game, for me, is the manner in which the Ibble dibble statement is delivered. Some people proclaim their lack of dibble status with quiet pride, while others deliver it with attitude. One of the cousins actively moves her head side to side as she artfully avoids dibbles. We tease her mercilessly about this. She loves it. If the player speaking has less dibbles than the one they are addressing you might hear. “Ibble dibble with NO dibbles to Ibble dibble with TWO dibbles!” Huge emphases on the number of dibbles, as if to remind the other person that THEY have screwed up and YOU have not.

The “dibbler” is also quite the political job. Yes, dibble even takes a noun/subject form. Logically, the dibbler is the one who applies the dibbles. How forceful that person is, and if they apply the same force with everyone, makes HUGE statements. Our local dibbler is one of the youngest in the group and she takes this job quite seriously. It provides her a position of power that she might not otherwise have. She loves it, won’t give it up for anything.

I got curious about the origin of the game and looked it up. Ok, I’ll be totally honest. I wondered if my husband’s wonderfully insane family just made it up. Turns out they didn’t. According to my Google sources, the game started in France. Instead of “Ibble dibble”, the players are spotted cows. Oh yes… Spotted cows. “La vache qui tache”, to be more specific. It rhymes in French, but not in English, so they changed it to another nonsense expression. The spotted cow does make sense, though.  I mean really… can imagine a bunch of grown adults with black circles across their foreheads?

Ibble dibble. It’s part of what makes Christmas what it is. And I wouldn’t change it if I could.