Are yo-yos gone or in steep decline? There is a national yo-yo day in June and I wonder if it will be celebrated. It is an ancient game - the Greeks had yo-yos - a child playing with one is depicted on a terracotta vase. Before the twentieth century, they were referred to as bandalores.
Yo-yos were extremely popular in the 1950s and 1960s. Today there are associations and conventions, so the professionalism is well-developed. The world yo-yo contest will be in Cleveland in August 2019. The competition circuit has 33 countries involved - competitors travel around the world.
What sports are similar to it? Are yo-yo skills like juggling skills? There is an International Jugglers' Association with the IJA Festival coming up at the end of June and the convention will be in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It started out at an International Brotherhood of Magicians convention in Pittsburgh in 1947.
There are lots of programs to train for yo-yoing and for juggling. But I still wonder how many people are active yo-yoers. On the other hand, juggling has some statistics. One of them is that it is estimated that 21 percent of people can juggle. There is a chart on reddit where someone had fun with estimating how many balls could be juggled by the population:
Busker Festivals have both yo-yoers and jugglers. At last year's Toronto International BuskerFest, they had the Guinness World Record attempt for yo-yoing by Michael Francis. His website doesn't have a further reference that he broke the record, but he has two Guinness world records, including the coin rolling record in 2016.
June is the month of sweet smells. Lily of the Valley, Lilac and Wisteria scents float through the neighbourhood this weekend.
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