Kristo in sabong

We all know that religion, such as Catholicism, is deeply-rooted in our culture. We also know from our history classes that religion was brought by the Spaniards when they colonized Philippines. Not only that the Spaniards introduced religion but as well as a lot of things, such as the sport of sabong. But Filipinos are known to be innovative, inventive, or creative. We just can’t settle with the original. That is why on this part of our article, we are going to discover that religion has a special place in sabong.

Jesus Christ is the son of God who lived on Earth to save mankind from their evil doing and preserved the goodness in the world. Jesus has a lot of memorable images: from the day he was born in the manger, when he was growing as a noble child, when he was baptized in the river by his brother John, when he started his painful yet divine journey with suffering. And the most significant of all, which we can see in all Catholic churches in the Philippines, is the crucified Christ. He was crucified as his punishment when Pontius Pilate tried him in front of an audience and back then, death by crucifixion was the highest sentence. It symbolizes the height of his purpose to live on earth and be the Savior of mankind. Based on stories and illustrations, Jesus Christ was crucified on wooden beams resembling a cross, which is why he is viewed arms spread-out and legs straight-down.

And this is the image that may have linked cockfighting and the Catholic religion from Magellan’s clan here in our archipelagic country. If you see a person or persons calling for bets with arms raised almost like being crucified, that is what you call a “kristo”. Jesus Christ is directly translated in Filipino as “Hesu Kristo” and since it’s a mouthful to say in an event such as sabong, it was shortened to kristo.

The kristo’s role is important because he is the designated bet collector, as well as, a help facilitating the derbies. The kristos starts the bet collection once the exhibit of cockerels starts, which also signifies the start of the derby fight.

These kristos have impressive set of skill in bet collection: hand gestures and memory. No in-depth scientific study yet, but they can remember a set of different information within the whole derby fight schedule. Without pen and paper, they can retain information about who’s who and for whom is what from the thousands of audience in the arena. Additionally, their impressive skill of maneuvering fingers to denote pricing of the bet is also a spectacular to watch. They start being kristo when they start stretching their arms to each sides and moving fingers up and down, changing the number of fingers to signify the money to bet on. For example, two fingers pointing upwards or raised up vertically means P20.00. Another is the horizontal position of fingers to indicate hundred-peso bets. And lastly, fingers pointing downwards is a sign of thousand-peso bets.

So who said religion and sport can’t go together? Only in sabong.

Original stories from here and here.