You’ve arrived at the carnival and you know you’re going to have a blast!

COME ONE, COME ALL!

Check out the brightly colored posters hanging up everywhere, arrows pointing you in the right direction. Step closer, you’ll hear the music and your heart will skip a beat. Then you step into the fray and everyone’s playing games, eating cotton candy, smiling, laughing, having a great time. You’ve arrived at the carnival and you know you’re going to have a blast!

BUT FIRST…

It’s a carnival — not a fair… but what’s the difference? Carnivals began as a yearly tradition dating back hundreds of years, from the times when people celebrated seasonal changes or holidays.

They're all about fun, with rides, games and food. Fairs are usually theme-based events that are supposed to promote something (like your state in the state fair, or an art exhibit) — although they’ll also often have the fun stuff you usually associate with carnivals, too. After all, they want people to have fun (not to mention spend lots of money)!

Carny-ism

“Carny” is a slang term in North America for a person who is employed by a carnival. (In Australia, the word is “showie.”) But that’s not all. There’s an ever-changing secret language that carnies use so that they can talk among themselves without people understanding what they’re saying. As people figure out their secret language, those words lose their function and more words are made up instead!

Here’s some carny lingo:

midway – the main path or street that has the carnival sideshows, concession stands, and things to do

popper – a wagon with popcorn, candy apples, and food to sell

slum/hooch – extremely cheap prizes

joints – carnival games

doghouse – the booth where the person who controls the ride sits

lot lice – people who arrive at the carnival early, walk around all day, and leave late, but never spend any money!

WHAT’S THE BEST PART?

Well, that depends who you ask!

We asked 40 Jr. readers (ahem, thank you, Inside Scoopers!) what their favorite carnival games are. Turned out all of them mentioned games at backyard carnivals!

This was what we discovered….

Would you agree?

Rachelli Spector of London and Malky Sulzbacher of Gateshead said they loved “candy floss” the best, but we knew what they meant! (More on that soon!)

Sari Teff from Manchester couldn’t pick her favorite booth because her favorite thing to do at a carnival is to be the one running it! In fact, when she answered our survey, she was busy preparing a “corona-val” for all her cousins!

Kayla Subar of Los Angeles said she loves pickle races because she LOVES pickles