piko

On my way home, i passed by a street where i saw a group of kids playing  a traditional pinoy game called "Piko". I then reminisced my childhood days when i used to play the game with my cousins since we dont have any hitech gadgets that time like video games. We only have each other's company and  slippers, lata, lubid (rope) , chalk, and what have you.

In Philippine society, playing games is an important part of growing up. Some games are challenging. Some are daring. Some are physical, some are intellectually stimulating. However we play games though -- as a group or a team, games teach us sportsmanship. If you think about it, we enjoyed and played those games for many years when we were young without any referees or umpires. As kids, we made the rules and we abide by the rules. We call that "honor system" or "Sa Diyosan. As part of Filipino pastime, specially in the rural areas and during moonlit nights, the neighborhood gathers and shares games in the plazas, open areas, and main roads, trying different sets of games and interacting with each other as part of their recreation, socialization, and relaxation after a hard day's work.

I seldom see kids nowadays play traditional games like 'Piko' or buan-buan which  is the local equivalent of hopscotch, a playground game involving a diagram divided into sections, drawn on the ground with usually chalk or charcoal. Players hop from section to section. The game is for two to eight players.

The succession of turns is determined by aiming markers (usually a flat stone or a fruit peeling) at the center of the diagram. The player whose marker lands closest to the center will go first, followed by the second-closest, then the third-closest, and so on.
The diagram varies. Usually, the more players there are, the more complex the diagram and the sections are numbered or labeled to indicate the correct order in which the players are to hop. The first player starts by throwing his marker at the initial section. He then hops onto the section and kicks his marker to the next designated section. The player continues this process until he gets to the final section. Some games require the player to retrace his hops back to the start or for players to hop across other players' paths. At any time a player's marker touches a line, or when any part of his body touches a line, he surrenders the turn to the next player. The first player to complete the diagram wins.

Some games have another part after the first, apparently to extend playing time. This part has the players looking towards the sky then throwing his marker on the diagram. Without looking, he must walk across the diagram to fetch his marker without touching any lines. This stage is intentionally more difficult to give the other players a chance to catch up.
The game penalizes losers with the same choice of punishments shared by many street games, such as putting powder, liptick, or charcoal on the losers' faces, slapping the palms of the losers, or having the player who performed the worst look for his marker after the others have hidden it.