Europe

Canary Islands

El Garrote is a stick made of wood, which can have various sizes and thicknesses, and was a tool used by the aboriginal shepherd, on a daily basis, not only for handling livestock, the main economic activity of the time, but to defend himself of aggressions between different clans or groups that vied for pasture and other issues.
The island terrain forced the Aboriginal shepherd to use the club, since he needed it to speed up his movements, in search of pasture for livestock.
The Canarian shepherd (El Patsor canario) traveled alone, with his cattle, through various island sites, where unlike there was currently no settlement, or communication channels, so that on many occasions security could be compromised by the dangerous terrain, in turn. the shepherd had to make forays with his cattle in unknown territories in search of new pastures, so it could be the case that there were other groups using the area, leading to clashes.
The pastor, due to his isolation and his sacrificed spirit, conferred a strong and strong character, developing a physical and mental resistance that the inhabitants located in settlements did not possess.

The clashes between shepherds are defined through the Lucha del Garrote with the strongest and most skilled being the winner; in this way we can speak of a shepherd - warrior, that is, a person who cares for his cattle and at the same time has the ability to give an immediate response to an aggression or invasion of his territory.
After the Conquest, the aboriginal shepherd maintains his cattle activity conserving his main tool, to which a fundamental change is introduced: the iron puyón or regatón in one of its ends in order to be used as a support point.
The shepherd, given his isolation, had a reserved character, being the contacts with the settlers very punctual, but a symbiotic relationship is established since the shepherd needs some objects or food and the settlers know that the shepherd is the best connoisseur of the sidewalks and pastures for cattle, in addition to being a good supplier of meat, cheese, milk and leather.
The shepherd's isolation makes the use of the stick and club stick, unlike other customs that were lost until his recent recovery.

The technique of the club fight depends on two factors:
On the one hand, it depends on the type of stick that is used, since the size and type of wood with which the piece is made are factors to consider. And on the other hand, we have the technique, which is acquired depending on the school where the wrestler has been trained.

The game consists of giving without being reached, for this, you have to use both hands, using body parts, hooks, etc.
The player or fighter must have great speed with the feet, skill with the arms and many reflexes.
The sticks can receive a wide variety of names depending on the Island or the place: Palo, Garrote, Lata, Asta, Astia, Vara, Lanza, Regatón, Vera, etc.
Regarding the classification of the clubs, the following differentiation has been reached:

Palo largo or grande: it is the largest of all, preferably used by shepherds, and can have various measures, although one of the shepherd's size is used to play. As for thickness, they are usually of a homogeneous diameter that fits the hands. This type of stick, being larger and thicker, gives more forceful blows. It is usually grasped by the center and the ends are used to hit.
They receive a great variety of names depending on the island or the place: Palo, Garrote, Lata, Asta, Astia, Vara, Lanza, Regatón, Vera, etc.

Palo medio: of this type there is a great variety of measures, although generally it extends from the ground to the heart. As for thickness, they are usually thicker at one end than at the other.
This stick can be grasped by either end, although it is generally held by the thickest part.
This stick is usually used, normally, in the technique called "collecting", which is mainly based on defensive techniques.

Palo corto or Macana: it is a very effective and dangerous tool, if you know how to use it it can cause great damage to your opponent. To use it requires great skill with your hands and arms.
Very fast footwork is also required. Sometimes it was the case that the fighter had been or was a dancer himself.
The sticks can receive a wide variety of names depending on the Island or the place: Palo, Garrote, Lata, Asta, Astia, Vara, Lanza, Regatón, Vera, etc.
The materials with which these instruments were made used to be the woods obtained from fruit and endemic trees, typical of the Canary Islands. In the Eastern Islands, Lanzarote and Fuerteventura, the wood had to be imported from other places due to the lack of good woods for the manufacture of quality clubs. The choice and cutting of wood is part of an ancient ritual, which depends on the phases of the moon; straightens with fire.

The types of trees most used for this purpose are:
- Fruit trees: Quince tree (Cydonia Oblonga), Almond tree (Prunus Amygdalus), Plum tree (Prunus domesticus).
- Endemic Trees: Palm (Phoenix canariensis), Barbusano (Apollonias barbujana), Palo Blanco (Picconia excelsa), Acebuche (Olea europaea), Canary Island Pine (Pinus canariensis).

Books:

GONZÁLEZ, A., y MARTÍNEZ, G., El Juego del Palo Canario. Centro de Cultura Popular Canaria. Santa Cruz de Tenerife,1992

Articles:

https://www3.gobiernodecanarias.org/medusa/wiki/index.php?title=Lucha_del_garrote&fbclid=IwAR0sujCv5khpUt6ia3L4HBCPZ_ODBbN6UmF0tMQq8L7IpIvilU-2pudt2N8
https://elrincondelaikido.blogspot.com/2014/12/juego-del-garrote-canario.html?fbclid=IwAR3Tdr8RLOlS67JF9aaJ7p05vUvyRMCncnRwNadeMAY6EoLy6xXxvLW9iqY

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-6UaT9qlXk&fbclid=IwAR1j9mjMa0phJsW352q_L7EMf8JSpEI2Z_x77-LbRwEdyjDszghgj27lvg8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSPl7P2y-aI&fbclid=IwAR1_R3aaMPWZP3fOvkvQlkTpx3h-g97PYWq960J5vj3pxuj2OJvog6aknGo

Iceland

Glima is played on grass outdoor and or a wooden floor indoor.
It is a standing up wrestling style with clothes. Wrestlers (men or women) wear specific clothes and a leather harness at the belt. This harness was introduced in 1905. Wrestlers start by gripping the harness with the hands. They are not allowed to lose this hold.
There are several weight and age categories. Techniques are done mainly with legs.The goal is to throw the opponent on any part of the body, from knees to the shoulders.

Netherlands, Belgium, Germany

Goose pulling (also called gander pulling, goose riding, pulling the goose or goose neck tearing) was a blood sport practiced in parts of the Netherlands, Belgium, England, and North America from the 17th to the 19th centuries. It originated in the 12th century in Spain and was spread around Europe by the Spanish Third.
In El Carpio de Tajo (Spain) goose pulling is practised on every July 25th to celebrate the liberation (Reconquista) from the Arabs in 1141. Later, during the dictatorship of Franco, the use of live geese was prohibited by a new animal protection law. Instead of geese, ribbons tied to sticks were used, which the riders had to insert into metal rings. When democracy returned to Spain, the use of geese was again allowed.

Goose pulling in 19th-century West Virginia, as depicted by Frederic Remington (source:https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Goose_pulling#/overview)

Goose pulling is attested in the Netherlands as early as the start of the 17th century; the poet Gerbrand Adriaensz Bredero referred to it in his 1622 poem Boerengeselschap ("Company of Peasants"), describing how a party of peasants going to a goose-pulling contest near Amsterdam end up in a brutal brawl, leading to the lesson that it is best for townspeople to stay away from peasant pleasures.
Although the use of live geese was banned in the Netherlands in the 1920s, the practice still arouses some controversy. In 2008 the Dutch Party for Animals (PvdD) proposed that it should be banned; the organisers, Folk Verein Gawstrèkkers Beeg, rejected the proposal, pointing out that there was no question of cruelty to animals because the geese were already dead.

Belgian goose pulling is accompanied by an elaborate set of customs. The rider who succeeds in pulling off the goose's head is "crowned" as the "king" for one year and given a crown and mantle. At the end of his "king year" the ruling king has to treat his "subjects" to a feast of beer, drinks, cigars and bread pudding or sausages held either at his home or at a local pub. The kings compete with each other to become the "emperor". Children participate as well; in 2008, the children's goose pulling tournament in Lillo near Antwerp was won by a 14-year-old who won 390 euros and a trip to the Plopsaland theme park.

In Wattenscheid (Germany) it is believed that the custom was brought by Spanish soldiers who were stationed in 1598 and 1599 during the Eighty Years' War and later in the Thirty Years' War. In some other places of Germany it was forbidden.

The sport appears to have been relatively uncommon in Britain, as all references are to it as a curiosity practiced somewhere else. The 1771 Philip Parsons locates it in "Northern parts of England" and assumes it is unknown in Newmarket in Southern England.
In a satirical letter to Punch in 1845 it is regarded as a barbarous practice known only to the bloodthirsty Spaniards, like bull-fighting.
The serious work Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain, of 1849, calls it "Goose-riding" and says it has been "practiced in Derbyshire within the memory of persons now living", and that the antiquary Francis Douce (1757–1834) had a friend who remembered it "when young" in Edinburgh in Scotland.
From these references it would appear to have died out in Britain by the end of the 18th century.

The Dutch settlers of North America brought it to their colony of New Netherland and from there it was transmitted to English-speaking Americans. Goose-pulling was taken up by those at the lower levels in American society,[3] though it could attract the interest of all social strata. In the pre-Civil War South, slaves and whites competed alongside each other in goose-pulling contests watched by "all who walk in the fashionable circles."[13] Charles Grandison Parsons described the course of one such contest held in Milledgeville, Georgia in the 1850s (Parsons, Charles Grandison (1855). Inside view of slavery: or A tour among the planters. John P. Jewett and Co. pp. 136–7).
The prizes of a goose-pulling contest were trivial – often the dead bird itself, other times contributions from the audience or rounds of drinks. The main draw of such contests for the spectators was the betting on the competitors, sometimes for money or more often for alcoholic drinks. One contemporary observer commented that "the whoopin', and hollerin', and screamin', and bettin', and excitement, beats all; there ain't hardly no sport equal to it." Goose-pulling contests were often held on Shrove Tuesday and Easter Monday, with competitors "engaged in this sport not just for its excitement but also to prove they were "real men," physically strong, brave, competitive and willing to take risks."
Unlike some other contemporary blood sports, goose pulling was often frowned upon. In New Amsterdam (modern New York) in 1656, Director General Pieter Stuyvesant issued ordinances against goose pulling, calling it "unprofitable, heathenish and pernicious." Many contemporary writers professed disgust at the sport; an anonymous reviewer in the Southern Literary Messenger, writing in 1836, described goose pulling as "a piece of unprincipled barbarity not infrequently practised in the South and West." William Gilmore Simms described it as "one of those sports which a cunning devil has contrived to gratify a human beast. It appeals to his skill, his agility, and strength; and is therefore in some degree grateful to his pride; but, as it exercises these qualities at the expense of his humanity, it is only a medium by which his better qualities are employed as agents for his worser nature." (Simms, William Gilmore (1852). As good as a comedy: or, The Tennesseean's story. A. Hart. p. 115.)
The sport was challenging, as the oiling of the goose's neck made it difficult to retain a grip on it, and the bird's flailing made it difficult to target in the first place. Sometimes the organisers would add an extra element of difficulty; one writer describing an event in the American South witnessed "a [man], with a long whip in hand ... stationed on a stump, about two rods [10 m / 32 ft] from the gander, with orders to strike the horse of the puller as he passed by." The reaction of the startled horse would make it even more difficult for the puller to grab the goose as he went by.
Goose-pulling largely died out in the United States after the Civil War, though it was still occasionally practised in parts of the South as late as the 1870s; a local newspaper in Osceola, Arkansas reported of an 1870s picnic that "after eats, gander-pulling was engaged in. Mr. W.P. Hale succeeded in pulling in twain the gander's breathing apparatus, after which dancing was resumed."

A variant called "rooster pulling" has survived in New Mexico for some time. A rooster was buried in the sand up to its neck, and riders would try to pull it up as they rode past. This was later done with bottles buried in the sand.

The sport involved fastening a live goose with a well-greased head to a rope or pole that was stretched across a road. A man riding on horseback at a full gallop would attempt to grab the bird by the neck in order to pull the head off. Sometimes a live hare was substituted.

It is still practiced today, using a dead goose, in parts of Belgium and in Grevenbicht in the Netherlands as part of Shrove Tuesday and in some towns in Germany as part of the Shrove Monday celebrations. It is referred to as Ganstrekken in the Netherlands, Gansrijden in Belgium and Gänsereiten in Germany using a dead goose that has been humanely killed by a veterinarian.

Edward Brooke-Hitching. Fox Tossing, Octopus Wrestling, and Other Forgotten Sports, Simon and Schuster, 2015
John Brand, Sir Henry Ellis, Halliwell-Phillipps, James Orchard (1849). Observations on the popular antiquities of Great Britain: chiefly illustrating the origin of our vulgar and provincial customs, ceremonies, and superstitions, Volume 2. London: Bohn, 1849
Elizabeth Hafkin Pleck, Celebrating the family: ethnicity, consumer culture, and family rituals. Harvard University Press, 2000

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heZVmRXSP9s 
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4104903/goose-pulling-tradition-video/ 

France (Brittany)

Gouren is played on sawdust, outdoor, during the summer festivals, and on mats during the winter season.It is a standing up wrestling style with clothes.
The wrestlers (men or women) wear a special shirt + a “bragou”, a short trouser.Arms grip in the shirt and legs can grip legs.There are several weight and age categories.
Techniques are mainly with hips and legs. The goal is to throw the opponent on a flat back, without touching the ground first.

Hungary

Grundbirkózás is played mainly indoor, during school sessions, only by young boys and girl, as physical education.It is a free style wrestling in a standing up position.

Europe, mainly on the border between Spain and France (former Basque territories).

This sport has its roots in prehistoric times, when people had to carry huge stones for construction. Later, people began to compete with each other in lifting stones. Even though the lifting of stones is deeply rooted in the Basque culture, the first historical information about such competition comes from the end of the last century. There are some exceptions, because the information collected by historians in the archives shows that the competition in lifting stones was already in the 16th century – probably even earlier. The first mention of this popular sport refers to successes of Arteondo, who was born in 1886. Thanks to him, the size and weight of stones were determined.

The player must lift the stone, which is lying in front of him, to the height of the arms and then throw it ahead. It should be remembered that all the players never lift stones at once, but in turn. Two judges take part in the competition: one measures the time and the other judges if the stone has been lifted correctly. Very often the audience, like the number of hits in the volleyball, screams how many times the stone has been lifted. There are two rules of the game: in the first the game wins the person who lifted the stone the most times at the specified time. In the second one players lift heavier and heavier stones – in this case, the winner is the one who lifts the heaviest stone.

All competitions and tournaments are held in four categories. Each one uses stones of different shapes and masses (traditionally, they are given in arobs, 1 arroba = 12.5 kg):
a) zilindroa (cylinder) - 8-10 arroba (100-125 kg),
b) laukizuzena (rectangle) - 10-17 arroba (125-212.5 kg),
c) kuboa (cube) - 10-17 arroba (125-212.5 kg),
d) bibibila (sphere) - 9-10 arroba (112.5-125 kg).

Natural stone is the most commonly used, although the best material for stones is considered to be dark graphite, mined near the cities of Zumarraga and Lastur in Gipuzkoa (Spanish province that is one of the province creators of the autonomous Basque Country) – also known as harri beltza.

Today both trainings and official competitions in harri-jasotze are held very often. The current world record belongs to Mieltx Saralega, who picked up a stone weighing 329 kg. Interesting fact it that women also play this sport, although the categories and stone sizes remain the same.

Similar sports also exist in other countries:

• clachan-ultaich in Scotland

• Hálfdrættingur in Iceland

• Stoalupfn in Bavaria

• Gŵyl Mabsant (Saint's Day) in Wales

• Dash kodirer (Даш кодурер) in Russia (Tuva Republic)

• Chikaraishi in Japan

http://www.herrikirolak.eus/language/eu/hasiera/ – Basque Sports Federation (available in Spanish and Basque)
http://www.herrikirolaknafarroa.org/ – Federation of Herri Kirol in Navarre (Spanish: Nafarroako Herri Kirol Federazioa)

http://www.euskonews.com/0045zbk/frgaia.htm
Ainhoa Irazu, Levantadores de piedra: más duros que la piedra
http://www.sportinstytut.pl/uploads/Reglamento_levantamientodepiedra.pdf – rules of the sport (Spanish)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/pedales/sets/72157627099504353/ – photos from competitions

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p99JauIKUJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WFR0V13nlg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIcLDp88sKM

Reglamento_levantamientodepiedra.pdf