Gambling In Every Night of A Wake

Last Saturday, our family travelled to Barili, Cebu to attend the last night of the wake of our great grandfather. We started the journey at around 2100 (GMT +8) and arrived there in Bolocboloc, Barili fifteen minutes before 0100 of Sunday. When we arrived there many people are present, majority of those are relatives of the Carcueva and Guzman family. Since it is the last night before the remains of our great grandfather be laid to rest, it has been the tradition of Filipino people that *family members should not sleep, which we Visayans locally termed it as magbilar which literally means that anyone should be wide awake until morning or sometimes have few hours of sleep.

There are many ways of getting awake up until the next morning, the most common practice is through doing some known gambling games such as tong its, mahjong and any other card games. Additionally, some do some drinking sessions for which we saw people attending the wake slept at the grass due to being drunk and having lost its consciousness after a very extraneous drinking sessions with friends and relatives. Although that was a bit funny to watch, it was that gambling that caught my attention.

When we arrived, mahjong game was already at its peak whereas for tong its it was getting started and our uncle was among the players. As for me, I know how to play tong its but I don’t do it for gambling purposes, I started playing that card game when my family was doing it to solve boredom. Well, a normal game is way too different from a game wherein money is at stake. For me, I’m not confident when it comes to gambling or betting even if the odds of winning is that high, for I believe that there is always a loser and a winner, it would be that pathetic to enjoy winning/gaining money for which the other would be mourning for his loss. But that doesn’t stop people, gambling has been inherited by Filipinos from the Spanish colonizers. Moving to the tong its being played by my uncle, my cousin @froeilanddave substituted him. My brother and my cousin are fearless, I mean they are used to gambling like tong its, as for me, I’m only inclined to taksi - a game wherein coins are being used to make the coins be move outside the perimeter of a square that is drawn in soil and if my memory serves me right, that was 12 years ago since the last time I played taksi. As the night becomes that late, only the players of tong its prevailed. My cousin was winning due to three cards game wherein he always got lucky to receive higher worth of cards or characters like King or having a pair of the same value of cards.

As for me, I slept at around 0200 or 0300 in the morning. When I woke up at 0600, the players of tong its were still up and many bills are being displayed at the table. I can see their eagerness to win, and it is customary not to quit even if you are having the biggest gain among the players since that would imply as a sign of disrespect to your opponents. That time also things are getting funnier since there’s this drunk man that is so noisy and very willing to bet his paper bills. People at that time would troll him to just use his money in buying another case of drinks since no one would dare to match his bets for its like win or go home and gamblers don’t like that idea. Well, that tong its session ended at around 1000 in the morning for which my cousin was replaced by another uncle of us. You can see how they are that committed to that game regardless if they lack sleep.

_{All photos were taken by me, using my smartphone, iPhone 6.}