The Hula Hoop

If you are holding a hula hoop in your hand you may get reminded of your childhood, doing  hooping exercises trying out new tricks and contest about which person is able to keep the hula hoop as long as possible on their waist.
Here is our story about hooping!

The hula hoop is an ancient invention and also was used in Egypt around 1000 BC.
They were made of dried up willow, rattan, grapevines, or stiff grasses and were propelled around the ground with sticks or swung around at the waist.
The ancient Greeks recommended their use for losing weight.
So no modern company and no single inventor can claim that they invented the first hula hoop, because despite its long history, it is often thought to have been invented in the 1950's when the plastic version gained popularity, marketed by the toy company Wham-O.
The Greeks used hooping as a form of exercise and play, called “hoop-bowling” from as early as the 5th century.

During the fourteenth century, a "hooping" craze swept England, and was as popular among adults and kids.  The word hula became associated with the toy in the early 1800s when British sailors visited the Hawaiian Islands and noted the similarity between "hooping" and hula dancing.

Other companies "re-invented" their own versions of the hula hoop using unusual materials, for example; plastic hula hoops with added bits of glitter and noise makers, and hoops that are collapsible.

A vase in the Louvre [dated 500-490 BCE] shows Ganymede rolling a hoop, but there is no evidence that hooping was part of the early Olympics.

Did we lie to you, were the greek the ones, who invented this toy, which still has lost none of its veracity in the last centuries?