Page 23 - Martial Science Magazine April 2018

THE ORIGIN OF SIKARAN

Sikaran is contact sports game, contest or tournament
using both hands and feet to parry the attack of the
opponent which is usually a strategic kick. Sikad is
a Filipino root word for Kick thus Kicking used as an
active Verb translates to Sikaran. This ancient sports
was popular among the Farmers in the Village of
Baras, Tanay and Morong in the province of Rizal east
of Metropolitan Manila in the Philippines even before
the Spanish Conquest of the Philippine Archipelago
on March 16, 1521 when the Islands was discovered
by Ferdinand Magellan. This sports uses both feet to
gain points while the hands and arms are employed to
parry the incoming foot blows.

The rich history of Rizal province traces Sikaran as
an ancient game of Rice Farmers that was discovered
from their daily routine farming activities to ease the
boredom during their idle moments from their back-
breaking work in the rice paddies. Youth farmers and
farmhands were the first ones to play the game by
kicking mud on the faces of their playmates using their
feet eliciting much laughter and enjoyment whenever
a tiny dirt lands on their target while other farmers
watch from a distance.

Farmers from the Village of Baras, Rizal were credited
as the first Sikaran initiators and players of the foot
and mud game until the nearby Villages of Lagundi
and Morong adopted it and called the game “Paning-
gara” which literally means Parrying in their vernacu-
lar dialect.

The game is usually played during the land prepara-
tion stage of rice farming when farmers would irrigate
the barren farm to soften it up and prepare the area for
plowing, harrowing and eventually planting the Phil-
ippine staple food. Rice paddies are submerged in an-
kle-deep waters for easy grubbing and plowing using
farm animals such as Carabao (Water Buffalo), Cow
and Horse to draw crude farming implements. The
muddy area serves as a wide arena for playing before
rice-transplanting, thus attracting the playful mood
of youth farmers who engage in mud kicking. Early
stories that were told and retold say that God-fearing
people during those days do not have the courage to
hurt others so much so that the game of mud-kicking
would only limit them to hitting the clean clothing of
their fellow farmer and that body contact that could
hurt was always avoided. The one who has the soiled

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