Phillipines Games

[frenzyguy]

AGAWAN BASE (Capture the Base)

    From:

    Pronounced as: a-ga-wan base

    Participants: As many as possible - the more the merrier.

    Participants are divided into two teams with equal number of team members. The object of the game is for one team to try & capture the base of the other by reaching the other's home base first & tagging a pre-decided item (e.g., a tree trunk, a rock, etc) symbolizing the opposite team - without getting tagged by the defending members of the opposite team. A safety line is drawn between the two teams. A member of an opposing team who crosses the safety line into the territory of the other team can be chased & tagged by the team that owns that base. If the attacker gets tagged before he/she manages to get back to his/her safety zone or home base, he/she becomes a prisoner (POW) of the opposite team. He/she can be rescued by his/her teammates if one of his/her teammates manage to get close to the base & tag the POW without getting tagged himself/herself by the guard or one of the defenders in the opposing team.

    The game ends when a member of an opposing team manages to tag the symbol of the other team or when all the members of one team are captured by the other leaving their homebase free for the opposite team to attack & capture.

    This game is similar to the Capture the Flag game which is the basis for the 90s adult game called Paintball Combat Game which has gained popularity over recent years. Tagging has been substituted for airpistols/guns with water-soluble paint as ammunitions for the guns.

[frenzyguy]

BANOG-BANOG (The Hawk & The Chicken)

    From:

    Pronounced as: bah-nog-bah-nog

    Participants:

    a. Banog or hawk, usually played by the biggest boy or girl in group
    b. Mother hen, usually played by a girl
    c. Chicks, played by any number of girls and boys

    This game is a favorite among children aged 6 to 12. It is an imitation game, imitating the antics of the hawk who preys on chicken to feed their young. Before the game starts, the group selects a boy to play the banog and a girl to play the mother hen whose duty is to protect the chicks from the hawk's attack. The rest play the chicks. When the game starts, the hawk and the mother hen face each other. The chicks stay in one line behind the mother hen, each holding on to the waist of the person in front of him/her. This line is not supposed to be broken. The chick who breaks out of the line opens him/herself up to the danger of being caught by the hawk. The game starts after an agreed count, then the hawk begins to crack down on the mother hen's defense to get to the chicks. He runs hither & thither, generally trying to confuse the hen and the chicks as to his area of attack. When he cannot catch any chick this way, he suddenly swoops down at the very end of the line to get to the last chick who is usually unprotected. The mother hen dashes down the line to save her chick but this results in making the chicks behind her break the line and fall, thus making them easy prey for the hawk. The game continues until the majority of the chicks are caught by the hawk.

    A variation of the game would be to allow the mother hen to get back her chicks. While the hawk is busy catching the other chicks, the mother hen will go to the hawk's camp & try to steal back her chicks. This makes the game take longer to finish & usually, the way it's ended is when everybody (especially the hawk & the mother hen) is too exhausted & everybody agrees to stop.

[frenzyguy]

BORDON

    Pronounced as: bor-don

    Bordon is a parlor game usually played after prayers for the dead or during wakes.

    Any number of players can play this game. The participants sit in a circle with both hands joined. A leader (IT) stays at the center. A ring is secretly passed around by a member as they sing the bordon (you can substitute a song of your own here if you don't know the bordon song). The leader tries to guess where the ring is. He continues guessing until he succeeds in pointing at the person who holds it. The holder of the ring guessed by the leader becomes the "it", and he takes the place of the leader.

[frenzyguy]

BUWAN-BUWAN or BAKUNAWA

    Number of Players: At least 8 - 6 for the circle & 1 to play the buwan (moon) & 1 to play the bakunawa (eclipse).

    All the players except the buwan and the bakunawa stand in a circle facing in and holding each other's hands. The buwan stands inside the circle while the bakunawa stands outside. The object of the game is for the bakunawa to tag the buwan. The rest of the players try to prevent the bakunawa from doing so by holding on to each other & running around the circle as fast as they & not letting go.

    For the bakunawa to get into the circle, the bakunawa asks one of the players, "What chain is this?" to which the player replies, "An iron chain!" An iron chain is supposed to be unbreakable so the bakunawa tries another player. A player who would like to let the bakunawa in could say, "This is an abaca chain" and lets go. This is done when the bakunawa is feeling tired from running around. Sometimes the bakunawa also tries to get in by going under the linked hands - if the player chosen as the bakunawa is fast & small enough, this can be easily accomplished. As soon as the bakunawa succeeds in getting in, the circle players will let the buwan out of the circle. The bakunawa then tries to break out of the linked hands again to try & get out to catch the buwan. When the bakunawa succeeds in catching the buwan, they exchange places or if both of them are too tired, another pair from the circle of players are chosen as the new bakunawa and buwan.

[frenzyguy]

CHATO

    From: Rick Nuqui

    Chato is played by digging a small hole on the ground and using 2 sticks - a short and a long one. Put the short stick on the hole with one end protruding out; hit that end with the long stick and while the short stick is in the air, try and hit it again as far as it can go. Then measure the distance using the long stick as the yardstick. The winner then gets to hit the short stick, starting from the hole, as many times as his winnings. The loser has to run from that distance back to the hole, all the while shouting "CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATO"! If he/she loses his breath while running, the winner hits the small stick again from that point, and the loser has to run and shout again.

[frenzyguy]

GAGAMBA

    Pronounced as: ga-gam-ba

    Played by two people, each having their own "champion spider". An arbiter will then conduct the spider match on a little stick. The victor will be the spider that eats-up the other one first. Similar to sabungan.

[frenzyguy]

HABULAN ESTATWA

    Pronounced as: ha-bu-lan es-tat-wa

    Translated literally to English as "Chase Statue". The game is played by any number of players. At least 4 players will be fun enough.

              o  Select the "it".

              o  Game is played by the "it" chasing everyone.

              o  Once the "it" tags someone, the person tagged must "freeze" or become a "statue" in the position he/she was tagged.

              o  If the "statue" moves (voluntarily or not), then he becomes the new "it". Everyone else (tagged or not) is free to run.

              o  If an untagged player manages to tag a "statue", then the statue can move and play again. Naturally, the "it" will defend his "catch".

              o  If the "it" manages to tag everyone, he will then wait for someone to move again. Once one of the "statues" move he becomes the new "it". Everyone else is free to move and run-away from the new "it".

              o  Play until all players are exhausted.

[frenzyguy]

HARANGANG TAGA or TUBIGAN

    English translation: Three Nights

    Number of Players: Six or More

    Best Place to Play: Outdoors with Plenty of Space

    This game is very similar to Patintero with just a slight variation in the number of squares that the two teams cover and it also has a slight variation in scoring. In certain regions of the Philippines though, harangang taga is the same as patintero. Some children also prefer playing this game on a dirt area and use water to make the lines. Thus it is usually played on a moonlit evening to prevent rapid evaporation of the water lines.

    The players are divided into two teams of equal numbers. The ground is marked off in a rectangle about five or six meters, divided into four equal parts.

                                        t1 to t4 = taggers 1-4
                t1 _ ________|________ B = base (starting point)
                      |      |      |
                      |      |      |                   
                t2 --|-------+-------|
                      |      |      |                   
                      |      |      |                   
                t3 --|-------+-------| H = halfway point

    Winning the jack-en-poy or toss or "umpiang" entitles the players on that team to be runners. The taggers stand on lines 1, 2, and 3. Tagger 1 can go anywhere (that is, the inside & outside lines of the entire square whereas taggers 2 & 3 are only allowed within their horizontal lines) to tag the runners. The object of the runners is to get through all the lines: 1, 2, and 3 starting from the base across the halfway point & then back to the base without being tagged. Taggers 1, 2, 3 try to tag the runners as they cross the lines or as they get near them. As soon as one of the runners crosses line 3 & back to line 1 without being tagged, the runner calls out "tubig" (water). This means a "night" (point) is scored in favor of the runner's team. If a runner is tagged while crossing a line or while trying to cross a line, the teams exchange places and it becomes the turn of the taggers' team to run. The first team to earn three consecutive nights are the winners.

    Consequence: The losers carry the winners on their backs to and fro or the winners slaps the hands or make "pitik" (a process wherein one uses the middle finger to hit as hard as one can the knuckles of another person) of the losers for an agreed number of times.
   

[frenzyguy]

IRING-IRING

    English translation: Dropping the Handkerchief

    Any number of players form a circle. An IT is chosen via the Jack-en-poy or counting-rhyme method. The IT goes around the circle and drops the handkerchief slyly behind one of the players in the circle. If the person notices the handkerchief, the person picks up the handkerchief & chases the IT around the circle. The IT has to reach the vacant space left by the person chasing before IT is tagged, otherwise, the IT has to take back the handkerchief and repeat the process all over again. If the IT does succeed to claim the vacant space, then the person who used to occupy that vacant space (the person chasing the IT) becomes the new IT. If the IT succeeds in making one trip around the circle without the player in the circle noticing that the handkerchief was dropped behind him/her, that player becomes the new IT

    A variation that we used to do is not use a handkerchief at all since it is so easy to detect the handkerchief. Rather, we just use our hands to tap lightly the chosen "victim" in the circle.

    Also, sometimes to make it more interesting & lively, before the new IT starts choosing a new "victim", he/she is penalized by being asked to choose between doing "truth or consequence." The "truth" penalty would allow a member of the circle chosen by the person being penalized to ask him/her personal questions such as "Who is your crush?" or some silly question... The "consequence" penalty would include dancing or singing or reciting a poem, etc... The point to all these is to make the chasing more challenging since if one doesn't succeed in getting back to his/her place, one is surely going to get some kind of penalty. One has to be a good runner when one is playing this game

[frenzyguy]

JUEGO DE PRENDA

    English translation: Game of Penalty

    During a vigil for the dead, juego de prenda is played so that people will not fall asleep while watching the dead.

    Any number of players may play. The more the merrier. Players sit in a circle with the leader in the middle. Each player adopts a name of a tree or flower. The leader recounts the story of a lost bird that was owned by a king. He says, "The bird of the king was lost yesterday. Did you find it Ylang-Ylang?" The player who adopts the name of the Ylang-Ylang tree at once answers that she has not found it; so the leader continues to ask the other trees whether the bird has hidden in them. If a player cannot answer at once after the third count, he is made to deposit a thing he owns with the leader until the leader has many things gathered from the members.

    The penalty begins. Each one can only regain his belonging by reciting a prayer or a verse. Once a player has complied with the penalty, what he has deposited is returned to him. A variation of the penalty might be truth or consequence.