Picigin is traditional ball game from Split, Croatia that is played on the beach. It is an amateur sport played in the shallow water consisting of players keeping a small ball from touching the water.Picigin is originated played on the sandy beach Bačvice in Split. It was first played in 1908 by a group of Croatian students from Prague who were finding it difficult to play the game of water polo in the shallow water.Instead, they began playing a different game which would come to be known as picigin.The game involves several players in a circle batting around a small ball with their hands; the objective is to keep the ball in the air and out of the water for as long as possible. Players don’t catch the ball, they bounce it around with the palm of the hand. As such, the game somewhat resembles net-less volleyball, but is played with a much smaller ball, usually a peeled tennis ball.There is also a long-standing tradition of playing picigin on New Years Day regardless of weather conditions, when the sea temperature is rarely above 10 °C.In June 2008, picigin was pronounced a Croatian immaterial cultural good, for a period of three years, and it is planned to get a permanent protection after that.The World Championship in picigin is held in June.
