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P i ñ a t a s !
Piñatas have traditionally been parts of Hispanic celebrations in many parts of the world. They come in a plethora of shapes, sizes, and colors and people of all ages have fun whacking at them with a stick to reveal the goodies that come tumbling out. Most people have seen a piñata before, or been part of destroying one. Essentially, a piñata is an enclosed box that has a particular shape (like a star, donkey, sunshine, or even different movie characters) and is covered with paper mache of different colors! The most fun part is that the piñata contains candy or dried fruits that come tumbling out when it’s hit hard enough with a stick. Most often, people have piñatas at their parties or festive events. There are many ideas as to where this idea and tradition originated but its commonly thought that friars introduced it during the masses held in the days leading up to Christmas. They used the piñata to aid in their evangelism by making it a star whose 7 points represented the 7 deadly sins. The bright colors of the piñata were supposed to represent temptation and the people were blindfolded so that they had to have faith in order to overcome “temptation”. Additionally, the goodies inside the piñata symbolized the riches of Heaven that could be gained if one faith in God to resist the sin in their life. By Victoria Childress WORLD
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There is even a song that sometimes is sung while someone hits at the piñata! “Dale, dale dale No pierdas el tino Por que si lo pierdes, Pierdes el camino Ya le diste uno Ya le diste dos Ya le diste tres Y tu tiempo se acabo” Translation: Hit it, hit it, hit it Don't lose your aim Because if you lose it You will lose your way You hit it once You hit it twice You hit it three times And your time is up Whether you live in a Hispanic country or just have fun copying this tradition at your own parties, piñatas are so much fun to hit and most of all, to get the goodies inside once the piñata splits open!