Last Thursday, teams from Nifas Silk Lafto and Aqaqi Qaliti districts in Addis Abeba, were warming up at the Ethiopian Youth Sports Academy in front of Imperial Hotel in Bole.

Five days still remain for the Ethiopian Christmas holiday, Gena, which falls on January 7, 2018, and the teams are readying themselves for Ye’gena Chewata, the traditional and indigenous game played between teams of 10, using clubs similar to those used by field hockey players and a puck made of bound leather that each team tries to hit into opposing goalposts.

“I used to play the game with friends while growing up in Ambo during the holiday season,” said Getachew Duguma, coach of the Aqaqi Qality District team and chairperson of the district’s Cultural Sports Committee.

“The elders did not mind that we skipped class. In fact they acted as our referees,” he told Fortune.

“Because the game was played between kids in the neighbourhoods, the rivalry was fierce and injuries were common.”

Traditionally played during Gena, from where it acquired its name, the game has been formalized as part of the All Ethiopian Games.

The two teams were playing against each other to guarantee a place in the quarter-finals of the Addis Abeba City Cultural Sports Tournament. The final game will be played at the Ethiopian Youth Sports Academy on January 6, 2019. The best players will be selected to represent the city in the annual All Ethiopian Games Competition.

Getachew stood by on the sidelines watching his players and giving instructions before the games. The match takes place on a 90m by 45m field, butYe’gena Chewatacan also be played on a 100m by 50m area.

Right at 10am, the referee signaled the start of the game with a whistle blow ant the players enter the field. Five substitutes from each team took their positions on the side lines, and 10 players from each team stood arrayed opposite each other in the middle of the field, crossing clubs to indicate camaraderie.

“It is part of a tradition to show that although they are on opposing teams, they are not enemies and there won’t be bad feelings between each other after the game,” says Yaregal Assefa, coach for the Qirqos district team and president of the Addis Abeba City Cultural Sports Referees Association.

After the referee conducts checks to see all the players are appropriately attired, he starts the game with a second whistle.

The captains of each team stand at the centre of the field facing one another with their playing sticks positioned on either side of the puck, rur, placed on the ground.

The game begins with loud chants and lightly striking each other’s clubs and hopping.

The game is played in keeping with all the traditions of Ye’gena Chewata, a game celebrated for generations. Popularized during the reigns of Tewodros II, Yohannes IV, Menelik II and Haile Seassie, this cultural sporting event was well organised, and winners were lavishly awarded, according to Yaregal.

“The awards included sheep; cotton togas known as Gabi; and horse saddles,” he says.

The favorite to win the game at the Academy is Aqaqi Qality, which is leading by a point 20 minutes into the play, but during the second half, Nifas Silk scores the equalizing goal. Celebrating scores have no grandstanding behaviour as in other games and is simply limited to players striking their clubs with one another.