An Easter egg game

THE GENERATION gap was so clear to my nieces and me last Easter Sunday as they were all excited about the Easter egg hunt. As I watched my sister paint and decorate two cartons of eggs on Good Friday I could not think of my nieces and their happiness, as I knew we would have omelet for three weeks.

Easter eggs and the Easter bunny were not part of my childhood and I felt like a dinosaur until I opened the drafts of Jose Rizal's third unfinished novel, a manuscript known by the chapter title "Makamisa" or "After Mass." In this work written in 1892, Rizal describes how a friar named Padre Agaton dominates a small town.

More interesting than the story, however, are the vignettes into what I think is rural life in a Southern Tagalog town in the late 19th century. Rizal describes a game played by boys and young men who have not reached adulthood called "tuktukan."

I have never seen this game played except in a video documentary on Philippine games and rituals. Rizal leaves us with a less scandalous version of an egg-cracking game usually played by boys who tie eggs on strings around their waists, and with these hanging between their legs, attempt to crack the eggs of another player by swift pelvic thrusts that hit the opponent's egg hard enough to crack. First to crack, of course, is the loser.

Perhaps there was no malice in the game but in this day of video and computer games, these physical games really look Jurassic. In Rizal's version of tuktukan the eggs are cracked in the hands of the combatants.

Tuktukan is just part of this unfinished novel by Rizal. People bet on the players, Silvino and Cecilio, as they would in a cockpit but then the game is only played, according to Rizal, during Lent and this scene happens during a procession. Silvino has a reputation for cheating yet the game continues and ends in a street brawl.

Naturally, people are distracted from the procession. The brawl should be short and swift but then Capitan Panchong, father of Cecilio, and Tanukang, father of Silvino, join the fray and the trouble gets bigger than it should. I translated the manuscript from the original Spanish and this is how it goes:

"On one side of the town one could see numerous groups of men, seated in front of the tiendas (stores) and food stalls run by the women, in heated discussion on the issues of the day. [On the other side] the young men carried chicken eggs and busied themselves with their favorite pastime called tuktukan, played only during Lent, while their fathers and elders were in the cockpit playing with their fortunes.

"Boys usually played tuktukan until they become adults. The only difference between this game and cockfighting was money. In cockfighting, one lost large sums but in tuktukan, the winner just took the cracked egg. [Before playing tuktukan, they first] carefully examined the eggs to determine whether one was more resistant than the other by testing them slightly against each other. Firmly holding the eggs, they gave each a slight stroke on the elongated portion of the egg. This slight blow on the lower part of the egg usually produced a tiny crack while the top remained intact.

"In the plaza, one could see Silvino, son of Tanukang, among the group of youngsters. He was well-dressed and carried a small pouch with half-a-dozen eggs that he had previously won, wrapped in a silk handkerchief. He was thus challenging everyone to an eggshell cracking contest.

"'Tuktukan!' He shouted triumphantly. 'Come on, are you afraid? Come on! I have already received several blows.' The other young men, upon seeing his basket full of eggs, shied away and refused to join the contest. Silvino was notorious among the boys for being clever, arrogant and very demanding because his father was in power. Besides all this, everyone murmured that Silvino was a cheat, who filled his eggs with very fine brick or metal pellets.

"'Tuktukan!' he shouted more arrogantly each time, and many responded by shaking their heads and keeping silent. Seeing that nobody would dare challenge him, he approached the son of Capitan Panchong, who was also in the crowd and provoked him. 'Let's go, the two of us,' he said with a provocative air.

"Cecilio, the son of Capitan Panchong, who was timid and bashful responded: 'I don't want to play with you. I'm not feeling well.'

"'Oh! Are you afraid?' Silvino sneered.

"'What? Me? Afraid of what?' Cecilio replied, somewhat irked. 'Let us examine the eggs first. Oh, I guess you don't want to show your egg because it is filled with tiny brick pellets.'

"Silvino was irritated by these comments. 'What brick pellets are you talking about? You're a coward! The truth is you're just afraid of your father, [that's why you don't want to play].'

"'Say that again? [the once timid Cecilio answered]. When was I ever afraid of my father?'

"'Tuktukan!' Silvino shouted triumphantly and maliciously. 'Tuktukan! Who would dare challenge me?' he repeatedly cried aloud.

"Still everyone refused to take the challenge, especially when somebody whispered that Silvino's winning egg might be a fake. In fact, young boys could devise many ways of faking an egg. Some would meticulously prick a small hole into the eggshell, then fill it up with tiny brick or metal pellets to reinforce the elongated part of the egg.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu