Filecchio has been much in the public eye over the past week or so for the annual sagra della polenta e uccelli, now in its 43rd year. The organisers also set up the very successful 1st Filecchio Cheese Rolling competition -- Tiro della Forma (article here) which ran right through the narrow streets of the village -- very spectacular indeed but there were other “side events” taking place as the same time which were on no less importance culturally as they too had a tradition going back many centuries.
Morra was known to the ancient Romans and is popular around the world, especially in Italy. In the Bible, it may have been referred to as “casting lots”. In ancient Rome, it was called micatio, and playing it was referred to as micare digitis; literally, “to flash with the fingers”. As time passed, the name became morra, a corruption of the verb micare.
The game was so common in ancient Rome that there was a proverb used to denote an honest person which made reference to it: dignus est quicum in tenebris mices, literally, “he is a worthy man with whom you could play micatio in the dark”.
Micatio became so common that it came to be used to settle disputes over the sale of merchandise in the Roman forum. This practice was eventually banned by Apronius, prefect of the city. Roman colonies were located in Europe, Asia and Africa. Today morra can be found throughout Italy (notably in Sardinia, where it is called sa murra), Greece, the Teruel Province of Spain, Corsica, France, Portugal, Cyprus, Istria (Croatian, Italian and Slovenian parts), Dalmatia in Croatia and Malta.
There is also a variant in Spain called “Chinos” where coins are used instead of fingers. Morra played in Arab lands is called mukharaja. In southern France it is called la mourre, while in China and Mongolia it is hua quan, which translates as “fist quarrel”, and is played as a drinking game.
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While there are many variations of morra, locally it is played by 4 players. In the most popular version, all players throw out a single hand, each showing zero to five fingers, and call out loud their guess at what the sum of all fingers shown will be. If one player guesses the sum, that player earns one point. The first player to reach 6 or 12 points wins the game.
How to play:
- Determine how many rounds a person must guess correctly in order to win the match.
- Start the game by having the two players face each other.
- The hand that you are using generally remains visible to your opponent and the other hand is usually placed to the side or behind your back.
- Either at the count of three or some sort of predetermined signal the players extend their fingers and shout out a number from zero to ten.
- The fingers are counted to see if anyone guessed correctly.
- If one of the players guessed correctly they win the round.
- If no one guessed the right number then neither player wins that round. If they both guessed the correct answer than it is a draw and neither gets credit for winning the round.
- Play continues until one of the players reaches the number needed to win the match.
The game is simplicity itself as no objects are needed except a head for numbers and a good memory.
It is a fast and furious and only the very quick survive. Sometimes tempers are raised and blood starts to boil as the game progresses.
For 20 years, playing morra was illegal, the victim of a government crackdown on gambling. Punishment ranged from direct orders to stop playing by police officers to fines. The combination of morra and wine also sometimes led to violence when heated arguments about points and scoring erupted into fist fights. But playing the game was made legal again in July 2003.
During festas in the summer months you can still sometimes hear the raised voices of men playing the game. (morra -- images from Fosciandora 2004 )
At Filecchio the game was short and contained with the winners sharing with the losers their prize of the complete cheese. Watch the video below to see how the game progressed.
Il gioco consiste nell’indovinare la somma dei numeri che vengono mostrati con le dita dai giocatori. Simultaneamente i due giocatori tendono il braccio mostrando il pugno oppure stendendo un numero di dita a scelta mentre gridano, quasi a voler intimorire l’avversario, un numero da 2 a 10 (la morra), generalmente in forme dialettali a volte storpiati con espressioni molto colorite che variano di paese in paese. Il giocatore che vince mantiene la mano e dovrà combattere con l’altro giocatore della squadra concorrente e così via.
Il gioco finisce quando si raggiunge il punteggio deciso a priori. Ogni regione in Italia segue le proprie tradizioni i propri stili di gioco. Riassumendo si può giocare: uno contro uno (la forma base del gioco) oppure due contro due, ovvero quattro giocatori divisi a squadre dove le squadre sono poste specularmente. I punti sono guadagnati dal singolo sfidante ma sono conteggiati nel punteggio della squadra.
La morra, nonostante sembri un gioco semplice, in realtà è faticosa e difficile: il gioco si svolge con la massima velocità, con ritmo cadenzato, con clamoroso effetto acustico tanto da comportare spesso forti indolenzimenti al braccio, oltre che completa perdita della voce.
Mentre il gioco va avanti i ritmi aumentano rapidamente e non è facile mantenere la concentrazione. Il giocatore, in piccolissime frazioni di secondo, deve essere capace di ragionare in due sensi:
-- analizzare e prevedere il gioco dell’avversario;
-- non giocare mai i numeri che si aspetta l’avversario;
per fare ciò il giocatore deve possedere un’ottima capacità di osservazione ed una notevole velocità di ragionamento.
E’ un gioco basato sull’intuizione e sulla velocità e certi vecchietti, esperti ed astuti, si prendono delle belle rivincite sul tempo infliggendo sonore batoste a persone molto più giovani di loro. -- source