Water fight

Water play is exhibited by other animals such as monkeys or even elephants opting to spray themselves and others in an attempt to cool off during hotter months.

There is little doubt humans have been splashing each other with water for a long time, particularly during hot days, as it seems to be a virtually instinctive act.

However, these acts do not quite fall into the realm of the modern water fight definition, but do explain aspects of its origin.

Water fight participants simply do rough approximations regarding the amount of their clothing has been soaked through versus how much dry area remains.

Winners are often declared upon consensus by the group; More precise methods of determining the amount of relative wetness are also available.

This usually amounts to a measurement of the size of a single or multiple spots of water on an individual's clothing or equipment as predetermined before a battle.

In this way, a participant who has a "fist sized" splash of water on his/her clothing is "out" for a period of time specified earlier in the game.

Depending on the type of game being played, a hit would count either as a point or may result in a player being temporarily eliminated from gameplay.

Other methods that have historically been counted as "hits" include "suiciding" (the act of running up to an opponent, and directly hitting them with the balloon still in your hand) also considered valid is "medieval oiling" the act of purposely breaking a balloon in your hands, directly over the opponent, thus wetting them from above.

For example, if a balloon accidentally popped in a players hand and led to an opponent getting wet, it would not count as this is not deliberate.

However, if a player purposely breaks a balloon in their hand to wet an opponent in a shotgun like fashion, it is generally counted.

This method of scoring relies on some form of tag (either water-soluble or colour-changing when wet) to determine whether a hit or elimination is successful.

Soaking level as recorded by such a device would arguably be the most objective and suitable method of scoring for a water war fight, but as this type of additional piece of equipment is hard to find, costs more (than simply estimating wetness), and is not particularly accepted by most water warriors, this means of scoring remains used by relatively few.

Another method of recording hits is to place a necklace (with a water-soluble pill or medicine on it) around the players' necks.

One hit kills games are common during WaterWar.net's community wars, hosted semi-annually on the US east coast.

[3] One hit kills games were popularized by the "Vermin" and "Dominator" water wars, held semi-annually from the late 1999 through 2006.

Children and youngsters in Maharashtra, India engage in water fights during the annual Rang Panchami festival.

[6][7][8][9] Water fights in Iran during the summer, when temperatures often reach 40 degrees Celsius, have led to arrests and been attacked by authorities as "corrupt", "shameful", "abnormal" behavior in disobedience of cultural principles.