Nature's Labubu: The Reason Gen Z Love Discovering Horse Chestnuts?
Name: Conkers.
Age: Brought into the UK 409 years ago.
Look: The outdoor world's Labubu.
That can't be accurate. Absolutely. Check out a social media video of someone revealing a conker, and you’ll almost certainly hear them call it “nature's Labubu”.
Unboxing conkers? What on earth are you talking about? Goodness, you really are out of the loop, aren’t you? Young people are taking to TikTok to film themselves unpeeling conkers from their spiky capsules.
But why? Because of the sense of wonder! When you open up a conker, you can't predict what you’re going to get. Could it be large? Will it be flat? How shiny will it be? It is like a mystery box every time!
Do Labubu dolls share those traits? No, they’re somewhat eerie dolls that have become collectible because they are sold in mystery boxes.
Can someone please tell gen Z that they are doing conkers wrong? Is that so? How do you play with horse chestnuts, then?
You put a shoelace through the middle of them, and try to destroy everyone else’s conkers. Is that true? That’s bizarre.
Yeah. Your odds improve if you soak the conker in vinegar overnight and then bake it like a pie. Seriously?
Truly. And if you end up collecting too many conkers, you can hurl them across the playground and all the other kids will fight each other for them. A beautiful, natural thing like a conker, and you use it as a tool for battle? A weapon that comes with a long set of arcane and bewildering rules?
It’s traditional! The King recently awarded the global conker competition with three hundred horse chestnuts! At least gen Z is only filming them.
How are you unaware of this? At a guess, because some schools started banning conkers two decades ago, due to concerns over well-being.
The modern world never fails to amaze me. Maybe unboxing conkers just isn’t your thing. In which case, perhaps you would be better suited to some other popular youth fads.
Oh really? Like what? Well, there’s this thing called knitting, and something else called clay crafting that I can explain to you.
We’ve had knitting and pottery for centuries! Let me guess, you heat tools in apple drink and then use them to poke each other?
No! OK, relax. I thought all old-people traditions involved some type of aggression, after that horse chestnut game.
I feel stressed. Relax for a moment. If you need me, I’ll be unboxing seeds for clicks.
Do say: “Social media loves showcasing nut discoveries.”
What to avoid: “This is nuts.”