Do you remember your childhood games? Do you remember playing games like hopscotch (piko), tumbang preso, habulan taya, luksong baka, luksong tinik? Back then childhood games are more interactive, and are usually played by at least two persons. One of my favorite childhood games is spider derby. Spider derby is a game played by a lot of kids during my childhood years. The game will require a piece of stick and two spiders, one from you and one from your opponent. The spiders used are usually web weavers.
Spiders are arthropods that have eight legs and fangs that inject venom. A unique characteristic of a spider is its ability to produce silk. They weave this silk to create orbs (spider web) which they use to trap other insects that serve as their food. Spiders can be found on trees and leaves of plants. One way of catching a spider is to look for its orb, the spider is usually located at the center of the orb but if not there then probably it’s in a nearby leaf connected to the orb. As a tip, you can easily catch a spider at dawn because it is during this time that they weave their orbs but if you’re not lucky in catching one you can also try catching spiders early in the morning before sunrise.
Spider derby is a popular blood sport among Filipino children. The game is played by carefully placing to spiders at the opposite sides of a stick. One of the kids will grab the center of the stick and will guide each spider to move to the center where the action begins. The child will switch grip from one end to another to ensure that the spiders will not escape. The game will continue until one spider is dead, wrapped in silk, or falls from the stick.
We Filipinos have long been a fan of the derbies, as a matter of fact we have a lot of popular derbies here like cockfights, dogfight, and we even have our own version of bullfighting which is interesting because we use two male Carabao’s. Indeed spider derby has become a part of our culture. I have to admit that its very entertaining compared to video/computer games. The pleasure of playing games like these with your friends are a moment to be treasured. Lately, I have been an avid fan of Marvel Avengers Alliance; a game on facebook that features Spiderman as one of its characters but after looking at the photo on top I realized that we Filipinos are truly Amazing. Imagine we have our own version of Spiderman- It’s more fun in the Philippines!
