Childhood of a Filipino: Know, Treasure, and Remember
As we know today, kids are usually connected with the word gadgets. Well, millennials, as I should address, may be enjoying their childhood with virtual reality games, but 90’s to 20’s babies are proud of their childhood experiences.
If you carry your childhood with you, you never become older.
-Tom Stoppard
Every Filipino kids, or at least they were once, experienced a childhood they will treasure and never forget. There are lots of Filipino childhood memories like games, myths, and food to be remembered and treasured.
Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.
-Kailash Satyarthi
Games are experienced by each and everyone, but what are the Millenials missing in reality? These are some examples of games every Filipino kids experienced and should experienced:
TAGU-TAGUAN
A game that is truly popular. Tagu-taguan or hide-and-seek is a must experience game where endurance, fear in the dark, and speed is tested. The tagger should look for player’s, the first player to be catch will be the next tagger. So, the tagger and the player’s should race to the desired wall or tree to catch or save each other. Remember when you always wear black every time you play because you won’t be able to find in the dark?
PATINTERO
A game enjoyed by kids. It is played by two groups of kids. And the team to have a person get through the other team’s members wins the game. This is where you’ll experience being hurt because you tripped, being exhausted of running fast, and be able to trash talk because it’s part of the game.
TUMBANG PRESO
Another game that tests the kid’s strength, shooting range, and speed. The player’s must hit the can with a slipper, if the player’s doesn’t succeed the tagger will have to catch a player to change the tagger’s position. The time we learned to throw our slippers instead of using it, truly a fun game to play.
Luksong Baka, Habul-habulan, Chinese Garter, and more. Name it, we will play it. Games and Plays will always be a part of our childhood. Of course, on every tiring game there’s a food waiting to be eaten. Prepared by our own Mother, we finish tiring games with nourishing and fulling food for snacks. Here are some examples:
Turon
According to Wikipedia, also known as lumpiyang saging (Filipino for “banana lumpia”), is a Philippine snack made of thinly sliced bananas (preferably saba or Cardaba bananas) and a slice of jackfruit, dusted with brown sugar, rolled in a spring roll wrapper and fried. Other fillings can also be used, including sweet potato, mango, cheddar cheese and coconut. Turrón is a popular snack and street food amongst Filipinos. We always wanted it serve sugar-ry and crunchy, also hot.
Banana Cue
Banana Cue is made with deep fried bananas coated in caramelized brown sugar. The bananas used for this recipe are Saba bananas, which are very commonly used for cooking in the Philippines. It is usually skewered on a bamboo stick, and sold on the streets. Hmm, it makes me wanna eat some. Just like Turon, serve it hot!
Puto, Calamay, and many more are being serve every after tiring day. It makes me hungry, how about you? These examples are just about getting the memories flashback to me. Moments to be treasured and remembered, the laughs and smiles we had. If you’re a Filipino you’ll truly understand how it feels to be a child again, make your own memories, it will forever be remembered.
As a former kid, now a teenager, I say that even though we age more, we shouldn’t forget how to enjoy and to have fun at certain things. As the saying goes, we only live once, enjoy most of it and you’ll never regret.
