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A pillow fight is a common game mostly played by young children (but can also occur with teens and adults) in which they attack each other with pillows. Many times pillow fights occur during children's sleepovers. Since pillows are soft, injuries rarely occur. The heft of a pillow can still knock a young person off balance, especially on a soft surface such as a bed, which is a common venue. In earlier eras pillows would often break, shedding feathers throughout a room. Modern pillows tend to be stronger and are often filled with a solid block of artificial filling, so breakage occurs far less frequently.

On the evening of January 16, 1964, the photographer Harry Benson snapped a well-known picture of The Beatles having a pillow fight in their hotel room at the Hotel George V in Paris. Benson claims that the pillow fight was occasioned by "a cable announcing that 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' was number one on the American pop charts."^[1] Other sources, however, have the song not hitting number one until February 1, 1964.^[2]

The 1978 film Animal House, starring John Belushi, features a pillow fight in one scene.

Contents 1 Organized pillow fights 2 "Pillow fight" in Japan 3 References 4 External links

On April 17, 2005 students from the University at Albany in Albany, New York set and currently holds the record for the world's largest pillow fight with 3,648 participants, observed by Guinness Records officials.^[3] Only eleven days before, the city of Groningen, the Netherlands had set a then-world record with 2997 people taking part. Other former record holders include Duke University and Warwick University, and the Albany record is set to be exceeded itself once the official count for a pillow fight organised by the What Now? television programme in Invercargill, New Zealand is verified by Guinness.

Pillow fighting became part of flash mob culture with pillow fight flash mobs popping up in cities around the world.

It is also one of the more frequent match types among women wrestlers called Diva in World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Most often, this type of match is booked as a Lingerie Pillow Fight, in which the women "compete" in lingerie and little or no actual wrestling takes place.

In January 2007, Reuters reported that a Pillow Fight League was operating in bars in Toronto.^[4] Pre-selected female "fighters" with stage personalities are paid small amounts to stage regular, unscripted fights. The rules call for "no lewd behavior, and moves such as leg drops or submission holds are allowed as long as a pillow is used".

Further information: Makura-Nage

1. ^ Benson, Harry (2003). Once There Was a Way…: Photographs of The Beatles. New York: H.N. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-4643-2. 
2. ^ "I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND"
3. ^ "The Guinness Book of World Records" (archive)
4. ^ No softies in Canada's campy Pillow Fight League, Reuters, Jan 16 2007

• The Pillow Fight League