Take a Swing!

I was in my twenties before I was even able to conceive of the idea of a birthday party without a piñata. The idea that one could even have a celebration WITHOUT a papier-mâché animal or cartoon character was completely unthinkable to me. It was my brother who told me about this inexplicable horror. He had been seeing a young lady from Orange County who was of Scandinavian descent and this aberration of nature said that she’d only once had a piñata at Mexican themed birthday party. Nonplussed I simply stared at her. She may as well have told me that she had webbed toes. Keep in mind this is the same young woman whose family was also blissfully unaware that torillas are supposed to be warmed up before serving. For those of you who are only supposedly Mexican and do not have guac and beans running through your veins, piñatas are a mainstay of birthday parties. Like cake, ice cream, gifts, and a drunk uncle surrounded by empty cans of Bud Light, it is one of those items that without it, it simply isn’t a real birthday party.

Would you believe me if I told you that we have the Chinese to thank for the piñata? I don’t mean the Chinese working in the Toy District of Downtown Los Angeles, I mean the actual people of China! I wouldn’t have believed it either but it turns out that the people who brought us fireworks, Mao, delicious takeout, and the 2008 Olympics also gave us the gift of the piñata. According to Marco Polo (not just a fun game to play in the pool, my friends), the Chinese fashioned paper ox, cows, and buffalo, and filled them with different kinds of seeds. They were broken apart with different colored sticks and this was usually done in celebration of the New Year in hopes of bringing about a bountiful growing season. Along with silk, spices, and pasta, Mr. Polo brought back his writings which include this idea of the piñata which, in Italy, is referred to as a pignatta. By the 1300s the piñata was incorporated into Lent and, because Christianity had spread all over Europe, it is no surprise that this included Spain and by extension would reach the New World.

To say that all the credit goes to the Chinese and Europeans would be misleading. The ancient Mexicans did have similar concepts for quite a while before the Europeans arrived. It is the Mayans we can thank for the concept of blindfolding the participant before they take a whack at the piñata. If America’s Funniest Home Videos had been around back then we could have crotch shots on record going back over 1000 years. The Aztecs also had a tradition of honoring the god Huitzilopochtli, the god of the sun and war (think the Aztec Apollo), with clay pots filled with all sorts of goodies by laying them at the altar and then smashing them. I don’t really get it either but I suppose someday people will look back and wonder why I would eat cookies and wine every Sunday morning. Speaking of which, once the Europeans arrived they wanted to spread Christianity and did so by appropriating many of the native celebrations into Christian ones. Around the world most of the pagan religions revolve around the seasons and nature and in order to persuade people to convert they would give them a way to mingle the religions to the point where they could be celebrating two things at once. This is why we have All Saints Day at the end of the Harvest and Lent and Easter at the start of the growing season.

Over the years the piñatas did take on multiple specific Christian connotations. Everything from the seven deadly sins to man’s eternal struggle with temptation (I know, what?), stepping up to swing a bat a paper Optimus Prime full of candy was an entire Sunday School lesson. Needless to say, those days are long gone. In Mexico the busiest time for piñata makers is during the month of December for the Posadas, the nine days of celebration leading up to Christmas. In America it’s all about the birthday parties and celebrations of Cinco de Mayo.

My family has had them for every possible celebration- anniversaries, Fourth of July, Christmas, you name it. As you get older you are kind of forced to outgrow the piñata. This is never your own choice but the result of Mexican families being so big and everyone having so many damn kids. The ideal piñata age to be is about 10-13 years old. When you’re the youngest around you get the first swing but you’re not strong enough to do any real damage. Too old and you’re way at the back of the line and you’ll be lucky if you even get to take a swing. By the time you hit your late teens and you’ve got just the right amount of angst and hormonal frustration where beating a paper Ninja Turtle would be the best thing for you, you’re too big and too old to do it. And you probably have braces so you can’t enjoy the candy either so you just go to your room, pull down the shades, listen to some Nine Inch Nails and throw The Crow into the VCR. Ah, to be young again…


See that girl all the way over on the right? She probably never got to take a swing



So there you have it, your history of the piñata. Also, for those of you playing Words with Friends, Huitzilopochtli will earn you something like ten thousand points.