Page 23 - Martial Science Magazine April 2018
P. 23

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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