Paper fortune teller: Difference between revisions
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{{Short description|Origami toy used for various children's games}} |
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[[Image:Cootie catcher.jpg|thumb|200px|An elaborately decorated fortune teller.]] |
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{{good article}} |
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{{Use dmy dates|cs1-dates=ly|date=July 2023}} |
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{{Use list-defined references|date=July 2023}} |
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[[File:Cootie catcher.jpg|thumb|200px|An elaborately decorated fortune teller]] |
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A '''fortune teller''' is a form of [[origami]] used in children's games. Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message. The person operating the fortune teller manipulates the device based on the choices made by the player, and finally one of the hidden messages is revealed. These messages may purport to answer questions (hence the name), or they may be activities that the player must perform. |
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A '''fortune teller''' or a '''cootie catcher''' (sometimes called a '''scrunchie''' and a '''chatterbox''' in [[Australia]]), is an [[origami]] device used in fortune-telling games by children. A player asks a question, and the holder of the device answers using a regular [[algorithm]] like the examples below. Usually the questions, answers, colors and/or numbers (depending upon the playing method) are added to the device by or to suit the user. |
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The same shape may also be used as [[Pincers (tool)|pincers]] or as a [[salt cellar]]. Another common name for it is a '''cootie catcher'''; it has many other names. |
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There are several different methods by which the device can be used, most of which use the following pattern of steps: |
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==Construction== |
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{| class="wikitable" border="1" |
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A paper fortune teller may be constructed by the steps shown in the illustration below:<ref name="lang">{{citation|title=Origami In Action|first=Robert J.|last=Lang|publisher=Macmillan|year=1997|isbn=978-0-312-15618-3|pages=68–71|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=__RvKWjGKokC&pg=PA68|author-link=Robert J. Lang}}.</ref><ref name="temkut">{{citation|title=Origami Toys|first1=Florence|last1=Temko|first2=Dave|last2=Kutchukian|publisher=Tuttle Publishing|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8048-3478-0|pages=22–23|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c_kRTVfrhnUC&pg=PA22}}.</ref> |
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|The player first asks a question to the person holding the fortune teller. This question will be answered by the device. The holder then asks for a number and/or color. Once the number and/or color has been chosen, the holder uses his/her fingers to switch between the two groups of colors/numbers that occupy the inside area of the device. The holder switches these positions a specific number of times, which can be given by the amount of letters in the color selected, the number originally chosen, or the sum of both. Once the holder has finished switching the positions of the fortune teller, the player chooses one of the flaps that has been revealed. These flaps often have colors and/or numbers on them, and the chosen flap often is the same as the color/number originally chosen. The holder then lifts the flap and reads the fortune that is underneath. Any one of these steps may be repeated to suit the user. |
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# The corners of a sheet of paper are folded up to meet the opposite sides and (if the paper is not already square) the top is cut off, making a square sheet with diagonal creases.<ref name="lang"/> |
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|} |
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# The four corners of the square are folded into the center, forming a shape known in origami terminology as a [[Yoshizawa–Randlett system#Origami bases|blintz base]] or cushion fold.<ref name="temkut"/> The resulting smaller square is turned over, and the four corners are folded in a second time.<ref name="lang"/> |
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# All four corners are folded up so that the points meet in the middle, and the pockets of paper in each of the four corners are pulled away from the center.<ref name="lang"/> |
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[[File:Fortuneteller mgx.svg|360px|center]] |
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==Telling fortunes== |
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To use the fortune teller, the person telling the fortunes holds four fingers in the four corners of the paper, keeping two pairs of corners together and the other two pairs separated so that only half of the internal sides of the corners are visible. This may be done with index fingers and thumbs of two hands,<ref name="lang"/> or with the thumb and three fingers of one hand.<ref name="kenneway"/> |
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Manipulations are done by various similar methods. In a common method, the player asks a question of the person holding the fortune teller; this question will be answered by the device. The holder then asks for a number or color. Once the number or color is chosen, the holder uses their fingers to switch between the two groups of colors and numbers inside the fortune teller. The holder switches these positions a number of times, determined by the number of letters in the color selected, the number originally chosen, or the sum of both. Once the holder has finished switching the positions of the fortune teller, the player chooses one of the flaps revealed. These flaps often have colors or numbers on them. The holder then lifts the flap and reveals the fortune underneath. Steps may be repeated to suit the users.<ref>{{citation|title=Hopscotch, hangman, hot potato, and ha, ha, ha: a rulebook of children's games|first=Jack|last=Maguire|publisher=Simon and Schuster|year=1990|isbn=978-0-671-76332-9|pages=46–47|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=55i2ZwCYtpQC&pg=PA46}}.</ref><ref name="temkut"/> |
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These devices can be "rigged" by the placement of only even numbers on one "position" and only odd numbers on the other, resulting in forced placement to an even position. In this rigged version, bad fortunes are placed under all the even flaps and good fortunes under all the odd ones, so that when an unwitting player complains that they always get bad fortunes, the fortune teller can expose all the fortunes and claim that the high repeat rate is the fault of the player and not the device. |
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==Other uses== |
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== Pop culture references == |
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Instead of being used to tell fortunes, these shapes may be used as a pincer to play-act catching bugs such as [[lice]], hence the "[[cooties|cootie]] catcher" name.<ref name="lang"/><ref name="kenneway"/><ref>{{citation|title=Girl Culture: Studying girl culture : a readers' guide|first1=Claudia|last1=Mitchell|first2=Jacqueline|last2=Reid-Walsh|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2008|isbn=978-0-313-33909-7|pages=245–246|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arQy0v_PBx4C&pg=PA245}}.</ref> This usage has also inspired the design of a similarly shaped gripper in [[soft robotics]].<ref>{{citation |
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*Was featured in the ''[[South Park]]'' episode "[[Marjorine]]". The plot of the episode had the boys become convinced, upon witnessing the girls of the town using the item to answer Yes/No questions, that the fortune teller was a high-tech device that could actually tell the future and went to great pains to get it for themselves. |
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| last1 = Chen | first1 = Rui |
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*Was also featured in the PBS show, ''[[Arthur (TV series)|Arthur]]'', episode "Misfortune Teller". It was taken seriously by all of the characters.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pbskids.org/arthur/print/cootiecatcher/index.html|title=Cootie Catcher|publisher=[[PBS Kids]]|work=[[Arthur (TV series)|Arthur]]|accessdate=2007-09-28}}</ref> |
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| last2 = Zhang | first2 = Chen |
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*Was also in the Disney show, ''Recess'', episode 73 "Gus' Fortune." Gus finds a paper fortune teller and it causes some drama on the playground and in the bedroom. |
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| last3 = Sun | first3 = Yi |
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*Briefly appeared in episode 1–15, "Brothers," of the ABC drama ''[[Ugly Betty]]''. Marc asks it, "How many boyfriends do I get?" |
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| last4 = Yu | first4 = Tao |
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* At the opening of the film ''[[Waking Life]]'', the main protagonist is depicted as a child having his fortune told by a young girl using a cootie catcher. The scene [[Foreshadowing|foreshadows]] events later in the film. |
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| last5 = Shen | first5 = Xin-Ming |
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* In an episode of ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' a cootie catcher used by [[Rhonda Wellington Lloyd|Rhonda]] predicts that [[Arnold (Hey Arnold!)|Arnold]] and [[Helga G. Pataki|Helga]] will be married one day, to the respective dismay and delight of the two characters in question. This leads them to them both dreaming about being married only to have Rhonda to inform them that the cootie catcher was flawed. |
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| last6 = Yuan | first6 = Ze-An |
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* In the first ''[[Fable 2]]'' [[Teaser trailer|teaser]], a [[fortune teller]] is seen holding a cootie catcher while telling her audience to choose their destiny.<ref>{{cite video|title=Fable 2 teaser|url=http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/6/2/4623fb5e-2c1b-4e4b-9b79-a65da6991353/Fable2_720p30_51_8Mbps.wmv|publisher=[[Microsoft]]|year=2006|format=wmv|accessdate=2007-09-28|time=00:12}}</ref> |
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| last7 = Guo | first7 = Jiang-Long |
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* In ''The Simpsons'' episode "[[Tennis the Menace]]", Homer uses a cootie catcher to test if he has cooties. He then exclaims "wow this self-testing kit has saved me a fortune!" |
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| date = February 2021 |
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* In the ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' episode "[[I Solemnly Swear|I Solemnly Swear]]" Lorelai and Sookie use a cootie catcher to distract themselves from a boring educational meeting about how to manage an inn. |
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| doi = 10.1088/1361-665x/abe3a9 |
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* During the ''[[House MD]]'' season 3 episode [[Words and Deeds]], [[Gregory House|House]] is seen playing with one while in rehab. The fortune he pulls is shown frequently on [[USA Network]]'s promos of the show: ''You are a ray of sunshine on a cloudy day''. |
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| issue = 4 |
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* A promo for the game ''[[Fable II]]'' shows the character discovering one and, with each flip of the paper, becomes a new character, showing the nature of the game for the player to choose their destiny by their choices. |
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| journal = Smart Materials and Structures |
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| page = 045002 |
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| title = A paper fortune teller-inspired reconfigurable soft pneumatic gripper |
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| volume = 30| bibcode = 2021SMaS...30d5002C |
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| s2cid = 233596615 |
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}}</ref> |
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As a [[salt cellar]], the same shape stands on a table with the four points downwards; the four open pockets may be used to hold small pieces of food.<ref name="kenneway">{{citation|title=Complete origami|first=Eric|last=Kenneway|publisher=Macmillan|year=1987|isbn=978-0-312-00898-7|pages=153–154|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bLp8DwZY8gwC&pg=PA153}}.</ref> |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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{{commonscat|Paper fortune teller}} |
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Several fine artists have been inspired by this form: |
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==External links == |
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*"Frog pond plop (Opening 6)", a [[concrete poem]] by [[Sylvester Houédard]] translating the most famous [[haiku]] of [[Matsuo Bashō]], was formatted as a paper fortune teller (with pictorial instructions) by [[Edward Wright (artist)|Edward Wright]], Nazli Zaki, and Matilda Cheung, and published in a numbered edition in 1965 by Houédard's Openings Press. The outside and two inside surfaces of the fortune teller are decorated with the words "frog", "pond", and "plop", each spelled with one letter on each point of the fortune teller.<ref>{{citation|url=https://artviewer.org/ora-et-lege-ii-endlessly-inside-at-broumov-monastery/|title=Ora et lege II: endlessly inside at Broumov Monastery|date=July 25, 2023|work=Art Viewer|access-date=2023-07-25}}</ref><ref>{{citation|hdl=1842/8867|title=Concrete poetry in England and Scotland 1962–75: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Edwin Morgan, Dom Sylvester Houédard and Bob Cobbing|page=246|first=Greg|last=Thomas|year=2013|publisher=University of Edinburgh|type=Doctoral dissertation}}</ref> |
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*[http://www.cahootie.com Cahootie] |
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*"Fortune Teller (it will all end in stars)", a large photorealistic pencil drawing by Australian artist Cassandra Laing (2007), depicts two hands holding closed a paper fortune teller decorated with an astronomical theme and foretelling Laing's soon-to-come death from [[breast cancer]].<ref>{{citation|title=Baroque Tendencies in Contemporary Art|editor-first=Kelly A.|editor-last=Wacker|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|year=2021|isbn=9781527565661|page=xi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0cdEAAAQBAJ&pg=PR11}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/endless-matter-of-life-and-death-20070328-ge4j36.html|newspaper=[[The Age]]|title=Endless matter of life and death|first=Gabriella|last=Coslovich|date=March 28, 2007}}</ref> |
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*[https://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=786718 History of Cootie Catchers aka Fortune Tellers], [[Google Answers]] |
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*"Unfolding Lives", a monumental sculpture in the form of a paper fortune teller by Judith Forrest and Terri-ann White (2010), at the [[Perth Cultural Centre]], forms a memorial to the [[Forgotten Australians]], institutionalized Australian children.<ref>{{citation |
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*[http://www.girlpower.gov/girlarea/gamespuz/cootiecatcher.htm Cootie Catcher], Girl Power! Campaign, [[United States Department of Health and Human Services|US Department of Health and Human Services]] |
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| last = Atkinson-Phillips | first = Alison |
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*[http://www.pbskids.org/arthur/print/cootiecatcher/index.html Cootie Catcher], [[PBS Kids]] |
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| date = April 2018 |
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*[http://www.momsminivan.com/article-cootie-catcher.html How to Make a Cootie Catcher], MomsMinivan.com |
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| doi = 10.1080/10304312.2018.1450493 |
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*[http://www.metacafe.com/watch/306045/how_to_make_a_cootie_catcher_fortune_teller/ How To Make A Cootie Catcher/fortune Teller], Instructional video |
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| issue = 3 |
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| journal = Continuum |
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| pages = 381–392 |
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| title = On being moved: art, affect and activation in public commemorations of trauma |
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| volume = 32| s2cid = 150284812 |
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}}</ref> After protests over its 2016 removal for museum renovations,<ref>{{citation|url=https://perthvoiceinteractive.com/2021/07/15/drama-unfolding/|title=Drama unfolding|date=July 15, 2021|newspaper=The Perth Voice Interactive}}</ref> it was restored and reinstalled near its original location in 2023.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.wa.gov.au/government/announcements/restored-memorial-forgotten-australians-takes-pride-of-place|title=Restored memorial to Forgotten Australians takes pride of place|date=May 8, 2023|publisher=Government of Western Australia|access-date=2023-07-24}}</ref> |
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*In 2018, over 10,000 illuminated red and yellow copies of this shape were used to create an installation resembling lava pouring from a building window, titled "ORIGAMI LAVA" (David Oliva + Anna Juncà), for the Lluèrnia festival in [[Olot]], Spain.<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/11/origami-lava-catalonia/|title=Origami Lava Pours from the Window of an Abandoned Building in Catalonia for LLUÈRNIA|first=Christopher|last=Jobson|date=November 12, 2018|work=[[Colossal (blog)|Colossal]]}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://www.sp25.es/treballs/origami-lava-2/|title=ORIGAMI LAVA|first=David|last=Oliva|date=November 10, 2018}}</ref> |
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*British installation artist Leonie Bradley's "Swarm" (2022) envisions masses of fortune tellers, folded from yellow and black paper, as a swarm of bees, and invites participants to fold their own bees as a reminder "to think about chance versus decision and the positive climate futures we can choose to create".<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.artweek.com/art-news/new-climate-art-installation-be-unveiled-londons-woolwich-contemporary-print-fair-eve-un#|work=Artweek|title= New Climate Art Installation to be Unveiled at London's Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair on the Eve of UN Conference|first=Lisa |last=Baker|date=August 23, 2022}}</ref> The same artwork has also been featured in fundraising events for [[Bees for Development]].<ref>{{citation|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/hugh-fearnleywhittingstall-prue-leith-daily-telegraph-london-emma-thompson-b2357684.html|title=Camilla stamps 'Queen Bee' on paper art installation at beekeeping charity event|newspaper=The Independent|first=Ellie|last=Ng|date=June 14, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{citation|url=https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/queen-camilla-talks-to-swarm-installation-artist-leonie-news-photo/1258690420|title=Queen Camilla Attends BFD Bee Garden Party|work=Getty Images|first=Eddie|last=Mulholland|date=June 14, 2023}}</ref> |
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==History== |
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[[Category:Paper folding]] |
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[[File:Horoscope of Archbishop Hamilton from Cardanus Wellcome L0011715.jpg|thumb|upright|16th-century [[horoscope]] of archbishop [[John Hamilton (archbishop of St Andrews)|John Hamilton]], cast by [[Gerolamo Cardano]], with lines resembling the fold lines of a paper fortune teller]] |
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[[Category:Children's games]] |
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Certain [[horoscope]]s from as far back as 12th-century Spain have a layout resembling this fold pattern, but they are not known to have been folded, nor to have been used in the same way as a paper fortune teller. Additionally, central European baptismal certificates from the 17th and 18th centuries were often folded in the same doubly blintzed pattern as the flat base for the fortune teller, before its points are folded together.<ref name=hatori>{{citation|contribution=History of origami in the East and West before interfusion|first=Koshiro|last=Hatori|title=Origami<sup>5</sup>: Fifth International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education|publisher=CRC Press|year=2018|pages=3–11|contribution-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7LMBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA3}}</ref> |
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[[Category:Divination]] |
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Koshiro Hatori has suggested that the fortune teller shape is originally European, rather than Japanese,<ref name=hatori/> but its exact origin is unclear. Origami historian David Mitchell has found many 19th-century European sources mentioning a paper "salt cellar" or "pepper pot" (the latter often folded slightly differently). The first of these to unambiguously depict the paper fortune teller is an 1876 German book for children. It appears again, with the salt cellar name, in several other publications in the 1880s and 1890s in New York and Europe. Mitchell also cites a 1907 Spanish publication describing a guessing game similar to the use of paper fortune tellers.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.origamiheaven.com/historyofthesaltcellar.htm|title=The Salt Cellar / The Pepperpot|work=David Mitchell's Origami Heaven: The Public Paperfolding History Project|first=David|last=Mitchell|access-date=2023-07-30}}</ref> The use of this shape as a paper fortune-teller in England has been recorded since the 1950s.<ref>{{citation |author=Iona and Peter Opie |title=The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sdWwHbOf4oAC&pg=PA341 |pages=341–342 |year=1959 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780940322691}}.</ref> [[Martin Gardner]] included this fold, described as both a bug catcher and fortune-teller, in a column in ''[[Hugard's Magic Monthly]]'', titled "Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic", in the 1950s.<ref>{{citation|title=Martin Gardner and Paperfolding|magazine=British Origami|first=David|last=Lister|date=September 2005|url=https://www.britishorigami.org/cp-lister-list/martin-gardner/}}</ref> Although the phrase "cootie catcher" has been used with other meanings in the U.S. for much longer,<ref>{{citation|title=Alabama's own in France|first=William Henry|last=Amerine|publisher=Eaton & Gettinger|year=1919|page=284|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXhHAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA284}}.</ref> the use of the phrase for paper cootie catchers in the U.S. dates back at least to the 1960s.<ref>{{citation|title=Honestly, Katie John!|first=Mary|last=Calhoun|publisher=Scholastic Book Services|year=1963|isbn=978-0-590-08544-1|pages=89, 91}}.</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Hawthorne|first=Ruth|title=The Folklore Repertory of a Third-Grade Class|journal=Pennsylvania Folklife|volume=17|issue=1|date=Autumn 1967|pages=18–25}}.</ref> As well as being called a salt cellar, fortune teller, or cootie catcher, the same origami shape has also been called a |
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[[de:Himmel oder Hölle]] |
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"bugcatcher",<ref name="lewis-oppenheimer">{{citation|title=Folding Paper Toys|first1=Shari|last1=Lewis|author1-link=Shari Lewis|first2=Lillian|last2=Oppenheimer|author2-link=Lillian Oppenheimer|publisher=Stein and Day|year=1963|isbn=9780812810639|pages=9, 54}}</ref> |
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[[he:קווה-קווה]] |
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"chatterbox",<ref name="bronner">{{citation|title=American children's folklore|first=Simon J.|last=Bronner|publisher=August House|year=1988|page=373}}.</ref> |
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[[sv:Pappersloppa]] |
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"whirlybird",<ref name="bronner"/> |
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or "paku-paku" (a Japanese phrase for gobbling that also lent its name to ''[[Pac-Man]]'').<ref>{{citation|title=Origami for Children: 35 step-by-step projects|first1=Mari|last1=Ono|first2=Roshin|last2=Ono|publisher=Ryland Peters & Small|year=2014|isbn=9781908862327|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aWsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA34|pages=34–40|contribution=4. Paku-Paku Pacman the Muncher}}</ref> |
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{{Clear}} |
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== References == |
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{{Reflist|30em}} |
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==External links== |
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{{Commons category|Paper fortune teller}} |
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* [https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/cootie-catcher-1046/cootie-catcher-pbs-kids-scratchjr/ Cootie Catcher], [[PBS Kids]] |
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* [http://www.momsminivan.com/article-cootie-catcher.html How to Make a Cootie Catcher] |
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[[Category:Divination software and games]] |
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[[Category:Origami|Fortune teller]] |
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[[Category:Paper toys|Fortune teller, paper]] |
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[[Category:Fortune-telling]] |
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[[Category:Children's games]] |
Latest revision as of 06:15, 7 January 2025
A fortune teller is a form of origami used in children's games. Parts of the fortune teller are labelled with colors or numbers that serve as options for a player to choose from, and on the inside are eight flaps, each concealing a message. The person operating the fortune teller manipulates the device based on the choices made by the player, and finally one of the hidden messages is revealed. These messages may purport to answer questions (hence the name), or they may be activities that the player must perform.
The same shape may also be used as pincers or as a salt cellar. Another common name for it is a cootie catcher; it has many other names.
Construction
[edit]A paper fortune teller may be constructed by the steps shown in the illustration below:[1][2]
- The corners of a sheet of paper are folded up to meet the opposite sides and (if the paper is not already square) the top is cut off, making a square sheet with diagonal creases.[1]
- The four corners of the square are folded into the center, forming a shape known in origami terminology as a blintz base or cushion fold.[2] The resulting smaller square is turned over, and the four corners are folded in a second time.[1]
- All four corners are folded up so that the points meet in the middle, and the pockets of paper in each of the four corners are pulled away from the center.[1]
Telling fortunes
[edit]To use the fortune teller, the person telling the fortunes holds four fingers in the four corners of the paper, keeping two pairs of corners together and the other two pairs separated so that only half of the internal sides of the corners are visible. This may be done with index fingers and thumbs of two hands,[1] or with the thumb and three fingers of one hand.[3]
Manipulations are done by various similar methods. In a common method, the player asks a question of the person holding the fortune teller; this question will be answered by the device. The holder then asks for a number or color. Once the number or color is chosen, the holder uses their fingers to switch between the two groups of colors and numbers inside the fortune teller. The holder switches these positions a number of times, determined by the number of letters in the color selected, the number originally chosen, or the sum of both. Once the holder has finished switching the positions of the fortune teller, the player chooses one of the flaps revealed. These flaps often have colors or numbers on them. The holder then lifts the flap and reveals the fortune underneath. Steps may be repeated to suit the users.[4][2]
Other uses
[edit]Instead of being used to tell fortunes, these shapes may be used as a pincer to play-act catching bugs such as lice, hence the "cootie catcher" name.[1][3][5] This usage has also inspired the design of a similarly shaped gripper in soft robotics.[6]
As a salt cellar, the same shape stands on a table with the four points downwards; the four open pockets may be used to hold small pieces of food.[3]
Several fine artists have been inspired by this form:
- "Frog pond plop (Opening 6)", a concrete poem by Sylvester Houédard translating the most famous haiku of Matsuo Bashō, was formatted as a paper fortune teller (with pictorial instructions) by Edward Wright, Nazli Zaki, and Matilda Cheung, and published in a numbered edition in 1965 by Houédard's Openings Press. The outside and two inside surfaces of the fortune teller are decorated with the words "frog", "pond", and "plop", each spelled with one letter on each point of the fortune teller.[7][8]
- "Fortune Teller (it will all end in stars)", a large photorealistic pencil drawing by Australian artist Cassandra Laing (2007), depicts two hands holding closed a paper fortune teller decorated with an astronomical theme and foretelling Laing's soon-to-come death from breast cancer.[9][10]
- "Unfolding Lives", a monumental sculpture in the form of a paper fortune teller by Judith Forrest and Terri-ann White (2010), at the Perth Cultural Centre, forms a memorial to the Forgotten Australians, institutionalized Australian children.[11] After protests over its 2016 removal for museum renovations,[12] it was restored and reinstalled near its original location in 2023.[13]
- In 2018, over 10,000 illuminated red and yellow copies of this shape were used to create an installation resembling lava pouring from a building window, titled "ORIGAMI LAVA" (David Oliva + Anna Juncà), for the Lluèrnia festival in Olot, Spain.[14][15]
- British installation artist Leonie Bradley's "Swarm" (2022) envisions masses of fortune tellers, folded from yellow and black paper, as a swarm of bees, and invites participants to fold their own bees as a reminder "to think about chance versus decision and the positive climate futures we can choose to create".[16] The same artwork has also been featured in fundraising events for Bees for Development.[17][18]
History
[edit]Certain horoscopes from as far back as 12th-century Spain have a layout resembling this fold pattern, but they are not known to have been folded, nor to have been used in the same way as a paper fortune teller. Additionally, central European baptismal certificates from the 17th and 18th centuries were often folded in the same doubly blintzed pattern as the flat base for the fortune teller, before its points are folded together.[19]
Koshiro Hatori has suggested that the fortune teller shape is originally European, rather than Japanese,[19] but its exact origin is unclear. Origami historian David Mitchell has found many 19th-century European sources mentioning a paper "salt cellar" or "pepper pot" (the latter often folded slightly differently). The first of these to unambiguously depict the paper fortune teller is an 1876 German book for children. It appears again, with the salt cellar name, in several other publications in the 1880s and 1890s in New York and Europe. Mitchell also cites a 1907 Spanish publication describing a guessing game similar to the use of paper fortune tellers.[20] The use of this shape as a paper fortune-teller in England has been recorded since the 1950s.[21] Martin Gardner included this fold, described as both a bug catcher and fortune-teller, in a column in Hugard's Magic Monthly, titled "Encyclopedia of Impromptu Magic", in the 1950s.[22] Although the phrase "cootie catcher" has been used with other meanings in the U.S. for much longer,[23] the use of the phrase for paper cootie catchers in the U.S. dates back at least to the 1960s.[24][25] As well as being called a salt cellar, fortune teller, or cootie catcher, the same origami shape has also been called a "bugcatcher",[26] "chatterbox",[27] "whirlybird",[27] or "paku-paku" (a Japanese phrase for gobbling that also lent its name to Pac-Man).[28]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f Lang, Robert J. (1997), Origami In Action, Macmillan, pp. 68–71, ISBN 978-0-312-15618-3.
- ^ a b c Temko, Florence; Kutchukian, Dave (2003), Origami Toys, Tuttle Publishing, pp. 22–23, ISBN 978-0-8048-3478-0.
- ^ a b c Kenneway, Eric (1987), Complete origami, Macmillan, pp. 153–154, ISBN 978-0-312-00898-7.
- ^ Maguire, Jack (1990), Hopscotch, hangman, hot potato, and ha, ha, ha: a rulebook of children's games, Simon and Schuster, pp. 46–47, ISBN 978-0-671-76332-9.
- ^ Mitchell, Claudia; Reid-Walsh, Jacqueline (2008), Girl Culture: Studying girl culture : a readers' guide, ABC-CLIO, pp. 245–246, ISBN 978-0-313-33909-7.
- ^ Chen, Rui; Zhang, Chen; Sun, Yi; Yu, Tao; Shen, Xin-Ming; Yuan, Ze-An; Guo, Jiang-Long (February 2021), "A paper fortune teller-inspired reconfigurable soft pneumatic gripper", Smart Materials and Structures, 30 (4): 045002, Bibcode:2021SMaS...30d5002C, doi:10.1088/1361-665x/abe3a9, S2CID 233596615
- ^ "Ora et lege II: endlessly inside at Broumov Monastery", Art Viewer, 25 July 2023, retrieved 2023-07-25
- ^ Thomas, Greg (2013), Concrete poetry in England and Scotland 1962–75: Ian Hamilton Finlay, Edwin Morgan, Dom Sylvester Houédard and Bob Cobbing (Doctoral dissertation), University of Edinburgh, p. 246, hdl:1842/8867
- ^ Wacker, Kelly A., ed. (2021), Baroque Tendencies in Contemporary Art, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, p. xi, ISBN 9781527565661
- ^ Coslovich, Gabriella (28 March 2007), "Endless matter of life and death", The Age
- ^ Atkinson-Phillips, Alison (April 2018), "On being moved: art, affect and activation in public commemorations of trauma", Continuum, 32 (3): 381–392, doi:10.1080/10304312.2018.1450493, S2CID 150284812
- ^ "Drama unfolding", The Perth Voice Interactive, 15 July 2021
- ^ Restored memorial to Forgotten Australians takes pride of place, Government of Western Australia, 8 May 2023, retrieved 2023-07-24
- ^ Jobson, Christopher (12 November 2018), "Origami Lava Pours from the Window of an Abandoned Building in Catalonia for LLUÈRNIA", Colossal
- ^ Oliva, David (10 November 2018), ORIGAMI LAVA
- ^ Baker, Lisa (23 August 2022), "New Climate Art Installation to be Unveiled at London's Woolwich Contemporary Print Fair on the Eve of UN Conference", Artweek
- ^ Ng, Ellie (14 June 2023), "Camilla stamps 'Queen Bee' on paper art installation at beekeeping charity event", The Independent
- ^ Mulholland, Eddie (14 June 2023), "Queen Camilla Attends BFD Bee Garden Party", Getty Images
- ^ a b Hatori, Koshiro (2018), "History of origami in the East and West before interfusion", Origami5: Fifth International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education, CRC Press, pp. 3–11
- ^ Mitchell, David, "The Salt Cellar / The Pepperpot", David Mitchell's Origami Heaven: The Public Paperfolding History Project, retrieved 2023-07-30
- ^ Iona and Peter Opie (1959), The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren, Oxford University Press, pp. 341–342, ISBN 9780940322691.
- ^ Lister, David (September 2005), "Martin Gardner and Paperfolding", British Origami
- ^ Amerine, William Henry (1919), Alabama's own in France, Eaton & Gettinger, p. 284.
- ^ Calhoun, Mary (1963), Honestly, Katie John!, Scholastic Book Services, pp. 89, 91, ISBN 978-0-590-08544-1.
- ^ Hawthorne, Ruth (Autumn 1967), "The Folklore Repertory of a Third-Grade Class", Pennsylvania Folklife, 17 (1): 18–25.
- ^ Lewis, Shari; Oppenheimer, Lillian (1963), Folding Paper Toys, Stein and Day, pp. 9, 54, ISBN 9780812810639
- ^ a b Bronner, Simon J. (1988), American children's folklore, August House, p. 373.
- ^ Ono, Mari; Ono, Roshin (2014), "4. Paku-Paku Pacman the Muncher", Origami for Children: 35 step-by-step projects, Ryland Peters & Small, pp. 34–40, ISBN 9781908862327