Snatching the handkerchief

Snatching of Handkerchief or commonly known as Agawan ng panyo o Laglag Panyo. It is commonly played by children, usually using handkerchief. In the Philippines, due to limited resources of toys of Filipino children, they usually come up on inventing games without the need of anything but the players themselves. With the flexibility of a real human to think and act makes this game more interesting and challenging.

A few decades ago, kids used to gather in the streets or in their neighborhood playground to play their favorite Larong Pinoy games like piko, patintero, taguan, tumbang preso, siato, luksong tinik, etc. These has been their regular and popular pastimes, but at the inventive mind of someone the Agawan ng Panyo came up and became popular especially for the street children because it only needed a single handkerchief and just their selves. Some people says that more of the traditional games including Agawan ng Panyo does not no longer played but it is not true because as of now there are thousands of street children who played it and there are a lot of people that use Agawan ng Panyo as one of their games in their parties or events.

1. Group yourselves into two groups. 2vs2 3vs3 4vs4 5vs5 etc. 2. One person will hold the handkerchief or panyo. The person who holds the handkerchief is the one who is responsible in calling a number. 3. Each group will number each member as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 etc.

4. The one who is holding the handkerchief will call a number and the person who is designated in that number will compete by the other team that corresponds to his number. NOTE: The person in the middle can call as many as he/she wants to call. 5. When the other group got the handkerchief and he is still not in their base, you can chase him/her and the point will be given to the group who chased the player that holding the handkerchief. 6. The winner will be determining when one group will reach the score that the host decided.

The objective of each team is to snatch the handkerchief and run back to their team baseline without being tagged by the opponent. The referee gives signal to the team. A player from each team would stand near the handkerchief, with one hand poised to snatch the handkerchief and the other ready to tag the player who would touch the handkerchief first.

The players will learn how to build teamwork by thinking how they will get the handkerchief from the host. The players will have the value in thinking not just their self but his team. He didn’t think “ I” but he thinks “ WE, the team”. The players will learn how to help others when their opponent team will fall on the ground and they will surely help fist the other people. Because sometimes in this kind of running games there will be some accidents that some players will commit errors on their running or stepping strategies.

The players can practiced their ability especially in running and they will practiced their sense of hearing by listening what number does the host wants to call. The important value of this game and I think the other game is the value of being honest. Because sometimes in this game the host did not see if the player chased his opponent player so it is the responsibility of the player to say the truth if he chased by his enemy. Sometimes the honesty will be seen in scoring of a specific game.

We felt really good about this game. We moved so fast that we always got to get the handkerchief. We were always able to outrun our opponent. It is really a joyful and good game. There was so much shouting in this game. Games that really involve running make my classmates very hyperactive. We also secrete so much sweat because of this game. There is one accident that my teammate accidentally stoop down a one member of our opponent team and of course she help that person so he chased by the other team. We think that if this game will played by our other classmates they will suely enjoy running and shouting because of this game calle Agawan ng Panyo.