Hunger Games (event)

The Hunger Games are played each year in the country of Panem. They are not actually a game, but rather a fight to the death between 24 children (called tributes) between the ages of twelve and eighteen. One boy and one girl from each of the 12 districts are forced to participate in this event in a large, outdoor arena. The event is televised to the people of Panem, and the last living tribute is declared the winner.

History
75 years before the 74th games, the thirteen districts of Panem revolted against the Capitol. Together, they stood strong. But when District 13 was obliterated by the Capitol, resistance became pointless. They submitted to the Capitol and lost their hope.

Now, every year since the rebellion, the Capitol forces a girl and a boy from each district to participate in the Hunger Games, in front of hidden cameras that show everything live as entertainment to the citizens of the Capitol and a reminder to the 12 Districts that they had lost the rebellion. Each year, twenty-three children die. Only one can survive.

Reaping
Every year, a reaping ceremony is held. Two large glass balls contain slips of paper. Each child from the age of twelve to eighteen has their name submitted. When they are thirteen, their name is entered twice and so on until they are eighteen, the final year for eligibility. You can choose to add your name more times in exchange for tessera, which is a small ration of oil and grain. One glass ball contains the girls' names and another is for the boys. The district representative picks a name out of the ball. Whoever's name is on that slip is then entered into the Games, unless someone is willing to volunteer, which is normally quite rare unless it is in one of the "Career Districts", districts in which kids have been training their whole life to enter the games.

Mentoring
Each surviving tribute may choose to mentor the next two tributes from their district the following year, and so on. Any living winner of the Hunger Games can be a guest to the Capitol if they are not mentoring in the present games, and can go to the Capitol to view the action.

Tokens
Each tribute is allowed one token from their district, to represent and remind them of home. They must not be able to be used as weapons, and cannot be dangerous.

Bloodbaths
Always, in the beginning of a game, there is a huge bloodbath where roughly half of the Tributes die right off. The area it takes place in is the Cornucopia, near the starting point. Surrounding the tributes are tables full of goods--weapons, food, water--just about everything you could want or need to survive.

This is where the fighting always starts. Either you stay to collect food or weaponry and fight, or you run and risk your chances without it. Either way, there is a very likely chance of your death.

There is usually more than one bloodbath in the Games, oftentimes at feasts. In the 74th Hunger Games, A feast is held in which the remaining six tributes meet to get what they most needed. Foxface had swiped what she needed and left while Katniss and Clove were left to battle. Clove grabbed a knife and teasingly traced Katniss' face. Thresh ended up killing Clove when she admitted that she was involved in killing Rue.

Quarter Quells
Every twenty-five years, the president of Panem selects a card from a box of cards made by the maker of the Hunger Games that makes a change in the rules of the reapings. For the first Quarter Quell, or the 25th Hunger Games, each district had to choose the children who went into the arena. For the second Quarter Quell, or the 50th Hunger Games, twice as many tributes had to be reaped to go into the arena. That was the year Haymitch Abernathy won. For the third Quarter Quell, or the 75th Hunger Games, the tributes were reaped from the pool of existing victors. Katniss Everdeen despaired when she heard this, because it meant she was going back into the arena as she was the only living female victor from District 12.

Trivia

 * Throughout history there have been 1800 Tributes in the Hunger Games and by the end of the war (in Mockingjay) 1793 of them died, either in the Games as tributes, in the Victor's Purge during the War, or before the war.