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The piñata is a bright candy-and-toy-filled container (generally suspended on a rope from a tree branch or ceiling) that is used during celebrations. A succession of blindfolded, stick-wielding children try to break the piñata in order to collect the candy inside of it. It has been used for hundreds of years to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas.
Spanish colonists are thought to have started the piñata tradition in Mexico; then the tradition went on to the Italians (pignatta). However, Gavin Menzies argues that the piñata was brought to Mexico by Chinese sailors about 1421, (*see Part VI, Annex 25). According to legend, Marco Polo introduced the piñata to the Italians after discovering it in the Orient.
Piñatas are made from easily breakable materials, such as straw, papier-mâché, or clay; traditionally they were made in the shape of human or animal figures (often a donkey) but, in recent times, vehicles, cartoon characters, or corporate mascots have gained in popularity.
In Mexico, the piñata is traditionally shaped like a seven-pointed star. It represents the devil and the seven deadly sins; hitting it with the stick makes him let go of the good things he has taken hold of. While hitting the piñata the following rhyme is sung:
- Dale, dale, dale,
- No pierdas el tino
- Porque si lo pierdes
- pierdes el camino.
- Ya le diste una,
- ya le diste dos,
- ya le diste tres
- ¡y tu tiempo se acabó!
which translates as:
- Hit it, hit it, hit it
- Don't lose your aim
- Because if you lose it
- You will lose your way.
- You have hit it once
- You have hit it twice
- You have hit it thrice
- And your time is over now!
Other meanings
The word piñata was also used for the process whereby Nicaragua's former Sandinista leaders held on to property they had nationalized while in power. The successor government accepted these appropriations.
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Children's games | Party games | Paper art | Spanish loanwords | Mexican culture
"Piñata"