Drinking games such as beer pong and king’s cup seem like established traditions among party-goers, but the origins of these games remain a mystery.
Unfortunately, history provides few answers.
“Probably because nobody thought it was significant or worth writing about,” said Potsdam University alcohol professor David Hanson.
Historians do know drinking games have existed in some form since ancient Greece.
At Greek symposiums, drinking games were played to get rid of sediment at the bottom of wine, said Carleton University history of alcohol professor and wine critic Rod Phillips.
“Wine in ancient times wasn’t just liquid just the way it is now, but you had a lot of dregs and sediment and stuff sitting at the bottom of your glass,” Phillips explained.
“When you got down to there and you realized you were going to be drinking the muck on the bottom, you simply got rid of it.”
He said they used to throw the sediment at discs to try and knock them down or at saucers to try and sink them.
There is also evidence of drinking games in the time of Alexander the Great.
Iain Gately, author of Drink: A Cultural History of Alcohol, wrote that Alexander had competitions to determine who could drink the most wine.
In one instance, 35 people are said to have died during a competition, along with six more afterwards.
Another example of an ancient drinking game is in China during around AD 700. There, they used to play drinking games involving rolling dice and answering riddles.
Today, popular games involve drinking excessively in short time periods, like century club, and performing a skill while drinking, like beer pong.
How these games formed remains unknown.
Historians do say the competitions have always been popular among males.
“Getting drunk is often seen as a very male activity and it is often portrayed as a sign of masculinity,” Phillips said.
Phillips said he does not know why this is the case.
“If you look at it from the standpoint of the outside, I mean, anyone can get drunk,” he said.
“It’s not especially clever or anything, but there’s a weird kind of status attached to it.”
Phillips explained that in the past, when not everyone could afford alcohol, being able to consume excessively was a sign of an elite status. There has recently been concern about the dangers associated with drinking games.
Edward Fortyhands is just one of many examples of dangerous games.
To play, people duct tape a 40-ounce bottle of malt liquor to one of their hands and cannot remove it until the bottle is done.
“Drinking games promote the exactly wrong way to drink, which is to say rapidly and heavily,” Hanson said.
“I think really trying to educate people about the dangers, and they are considerable, of drinking games is really the best approach,” Hanson said.
Phillips said there is no evidence people actually drink more because of drinking games.
He said binge drinking occurs regardless, especially among students.
“If people want to drink, they’re going to drink,” he said.