Pillow fight

Pillow fight is a common game mostly played by young children (but can also occur with teens and adults) in which they engage in mock physical conflict, utilizing pillows as weapons.

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. A useful technique in a pillow fight is to bundle the nibs. 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. An organized pillow fight will usually feature feathers due to its traditional value.

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 match types among women wrestlers called Divas 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 but feathers in the pillows were sometimes shedding from place to place.

In January 2007, Reuters reported that a Pillow Fight League was operating in bars in Toronto. 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".

Students at Columbia University have incorporated a Spring Pillow Fight into the spring semester version of their bi-annual primal scream tradition. Students run into the center of campus screaming and pillow fighting on midnight of the Sunday of finals week as a way to relieve stress. Feathers in the pillows were sometimes shedding from place to place.