Solving riddles is one fun and exciting way to exercise your brain. At the same time, it’s a nice way to have fun with friends and family. It is a great way of juggling your brain, but not be too stressed out in thinking about the answers. Solving riddles is definitely funny because usually, the answers are just so simple and our brains just over-think the whole problem. What makes the riddles even harder is the answers can easily be anything under the sun – be it a person, an object, an animal, an event, or a place.
Riddles originated from English poetry. The literary ancestry of riddles dates all the way back to Plato and Aristotle. In Ancient Greece, riddles were used as a scheming tool in order to demonstrate wit and wisdom. Another avenue in which riddles are used is through theatre. One of the most famous writers that incorporated riddles in his work is Shakespeare. Throughout his plays, riddles would show up here and there. For example in Romeo and Juliet, Romeo proclaimed his love in a riddle for the audience to interpret.
Riddles are defined to be a statement, question, or phrase having a double or veiled meaning, made as a puzzle to be solved. There are two types of riddles: enigmas and conundrums. Enigmas are problems generally expressed in metaphorical or allegorical language that necessitates the use cleverness and meticulous thinking. Conundrums on the other hand are questions relying for their effects on inserting in either the question or the answer.
Here are some riddles to tease your brain a little.
What can you catch but not throw? Cold
The more there is the less you see. Darkness
What gets wetter the more it dries? Towel
It is weightless, you can see it, and if you put it in a barrel it will make the barrel lighter. Hole
No sooner spoken than broken. What is it? Silence
Funny, and at the same time witty, right? In some cases, the answers to the riddles are just right in front of them. People have been making riddles in order to have fun with the company of one another, while exercising their mental capacities. The use of riddles is a great way of breaking the ice in a group or a warm-up activity for young students in class. Although the practice of riddles today is not used as often as before, it is indeed still a fun way of spending time with people while exercising your brains.
