Posts Tagged ‘juan tamad’

Juan Tamad (Lazy John)

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

Every day, in the morning, the whole town would hear Juan’s mother shouting. “Lazy Juan! Get uuuuup! Lazy Juan, it’s almost noon!”

Even if the sun was already up high, Juan would still be snoring in bed. He could not be relied on to work inside and outside their home. Whenever he was asked to do something, Juan would have an excuse. “My feet hurt, Mother,” he would say when asked to fetch water from the jar. “My hands are numb, “he would say when asked to wash dishes. So Juan would end up sitting around the whole afternoon.

Every afternoon, Juan would lie down under the tree and just gape around. “When will you change?”

Even their pet rooster would wonder. “Why are you so lazy, Juan?”

Source: Lampara Books (Manila, Philippines)

Who Is Juan Tamad?

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

A famous character in Philippine folklore is Juan Tamad or “Lazy John” who is noted for extreme laziness. Portrayed as a child in many stories, Juam Tamad was often described as lazy and at the same time stupid that he usually appeared as comic.

In one of the stories told about Juan Tamad, he came upon a guava tree bearing large ripe fruit. Juan, being too lazy to move to climb the tree, he lay down instead under the guava tree and let nature’s gravity drop the fruit. He remained there waiting for the tree to fall into his wide gaping mouth.