IS there really such a thing as a lucky shirt? Lucky shoes? Rituals that bring good luck?
Some people wear a timeworn shirt or dress, a certain pair of shoes, favorite socks when watching ball games, or else they think the results won’t go their way. Others need to pass through a prescribed route to get to their destination (the playing arena, what else?). Quite a few bring lucky objects with them, pray certain prayers, go through certain rituals that they carry out in secret.
All these because they want to nudge fate a little, tug at Lady Luck’s skirt a tad harder, and get a go signal from the heavens that things will work in their favor, and they’ll win the game.
These are pahiyang, taken from the Tagalog root word hiyang that means “suited, compatible or agreeing.” Pahiyang thus are a set of rules that people formulate so they go with the flow, move with the prevailing forces of the universe and dance to the music of the spheres, so to speak. The desired result: their moves are in harmony with “what should be,” or what they want it to be.
Simply put, pahiyang is superstition—but personalized superstition because each person makes his or her own pahiyang. It could range from maintaining a seating order while watching games to delaying trips to the comfort room mid-game to not watching the game at all because one feels he or she is going to jinx it. I forget now which player I interviewed in the past that confessed his grandma would make him put some garlic in his supporters for good luck (do they still use them now?).
In the University of the Philippines (UP) Fighting Maroons’ 36-year quest for a University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) basketball championship, UP fans—myself included—have used up and discarded lots of lucky tops, lucky bottoms and lucky shoes. None of them worked from 1986 to 2021.
This year in Season 84, they finally did. Coincidentally, 2022 like 1986 is another Tiger Year and also another election year. In 1986, a “child,” 17-year-old Benjie Paras came from San Beda to be UP’s Big Man. In 2022, Big Boy Carl Tamayo came to UP from National University and made a big difference. Could UP’s drought-ending, dynasty-breaking win over Ateneo on a Friday the 13th have been written in the stars?
Of course, No. 13 JD Cagulangan who produced and engineered all the eight points that UP needed to overcome Ateneo’s five-point advantage with just a few ticks left in overtime, gutted it out that historic night. Of course, CJ Cansino, who coolly banked a three-pointer to equalize and send the game to overtime, played his role in history. Of course, everyone on the team played their respective roles according to script in the Book of Fate. But ask the fans, and they’ll admit they did their own pahiyangs.
One diehard, Josh Buenaventura, made sure he replicated all the things he did for Game 1, which the Maroons won. He wore the same shoes, stopped for gas at Buendia, drove through Starbucks for coffee, took the Skyway and passed through NAIAX, parked at the same spot, had a Mentos candy just before the game and sat in the same seat, never leaving it once.
1986 team captain Joey Mendoza declined to share a good luck message to the team for Game 2 because “the last time I did that, we didn’t make it,” Joey said. Benjie Paras answered the same thing when asked to send good vibes to the 2022 Maroons. “Baka maudlot. After the series na lang,” Benjie texted.
In fact, the Tower of Power confessed his pahiyang in this championship was not to watch the game. “Game 1, I was in Tanay for a shoot. The signal was bad, so I could not watch the game. Nanalo. Game 2, I watched the game on TV. Natalo. In Game 3, we all stayed away, Andre and Kobe (his sons) just monitored the scores online. Ayon, nanalo! At the same time I was also supporting the team in prayers. That’s all I could do,” he sighed.
Now after three bonfires (two at UP Diliman and one at UP Los Baños), a non-stop succession of victory parties from nowheretogobutUP, sponsors Palawan Express; Robinsons Supermarket, TopBreed and Handyman; STATS and Januarius Holdings Inc. and the UP Diliman Chancellor Fidel Nemenzo plus several TV and Zoom interviews and fan engagements, the UP Fighting Maroons are out of the bubble, back in their homes with their families and in the history books.
The pahiyangs will be back in Season 85.