ABSTRACT
Recently, traditional games such as ‘gobak sodor’, ‘Engklek’, and ‘Dakon’ are no longer known widely among children. They prefer playing with gadgets such as Nintendo, PlayStation and the Internet. Even parents prefer their children playing at home. Thus, children become more individualistic because of their reduced time to play and to interact with their friends. Otherwise, many traditional games are performed collectively. It will affect their social life in the future. Meanwhile, the most appropriate environment for children is playing, as playing is the most effective media for transferring value and knowledge. Anak Bawang Community of Surakarta Indonesia is one of the communities actively making traditional games more well known to children. This research employed purposive sampling with a descriptive qualitative approach. The author selected the members of Anak Bawang Community, the schools where the traditional games were socialized, and members of the community watching the traditional games playing on the street. Anak Bawang Community introduced traditional games every Sunday at 6–9 a.m. by demonstrating them at Car Free Day (CFD) on Slamet Riyadi Street, Surakarta, at schools and certain events.
