We know how fashionable “piñatas” have become lately and we are sure you have seen thousands of pictures of Mexicans hitting them at parties but they are much more than just a funny Mexican thing to do, they have a long history.
There are many speculations about their origin but we will keep the version of the Mayan tradition, which says that the Aztecs commemorated their god Huitzilopochtli’s birthday by blindfolding the participant to hit a clay pot filled with colourful feathers.
A more modern version is related to Mexican Catholicism where the piñata represents the struggle of men against temptation.
If you want to celebrate something in Mexico, you basically need to buy a cake and a piñata and you will then have a party! Piñatas are usually filled with sweets and less often these days with fruit and small toys, and even with some cash! Piñatas used to be round shaped with 7 points and very colourful, but now you can find almost any shape from famous Mexican politicians to Sponge Bob!
Of course it wouldn’t’ be Christmas without a piñata so we found a pretty good instructional video for you to make yours. Get ready and be prepared for our next blog about “Las Posadas” - another beautiful Mexican tradition that is about to come!
Oh, just one last thing... you must never forget to sing along the very famous song that goes “Dale, dale, dale…” whilst hitting the piñata.