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.

Felize Navidad

Mexican Christmas is definitely more fun that American Christmas. This is not a subjective statement but one that is made on purely objective observations. Holiday shopping, taking your picture with Santa, getting a Christmas tree and decorating the house; these are all the staples of a typical Christmas in an American household. There is no disputing the value and enjoyment of caroling and making hot cocoa and sipping a bit too much eggnog at the office party or ugly sweater party. But when it comes to your typical “White Christmas” it’s really just one day of celebrating. You either have a Christmas dinner on the eve of the holiday and spend the 25th relaxing and perhaps heading out to a movie, or you do it all on the 25th. Not that there is anything wrong with that. It’s a lovely way to spend a day with family and friends. You might even make it out to Church for midnight service. It’s lovely, but it’s just one day. Not so with the Mexicans. Just like any other celebration, if it only lasts for one day (this is anything from a wedding to a baptism) it is a pretty small celebration.

Keeping in step with the commitment to a party, Christmas in Mexico has at least a solid nine days of celebration. There are more if you want to commit to them but it can get exhausting. One word that everyone who is supposed to be Mexican must know: Posadas. This bumps up one day of Christmas to nine days of going door to door looking for a place to party- it’s supposed to symbolize Mary and Joseph’s arrival in Bethlehem and looking for a place to stay; luckily we never had to spend the night in the stables. I don’t have a lot of experience with the Posadas. I remember as a kid, a couple of times we went up to the California Mission of San Juan Bautista to catch a Christmas play about a miracle, the appearance of the Lady of Guadalupe on the cloak of Juan Diego. Sometimes we’d get there a few days early to see the town, grab a bite to eat, and of course join in some of the singing and walking from place to place in the nights leading up to the performance. It was cold and sometimes wet but the town was decorated from top to bottom as we’d march along with a Styrofoam cup of champurrado in my hands. My brother and I, as well as the two children of the family friends that would often accompany us, would more often than not complain but the truth is it was fun we all have fond memories of looking down the valley from the mission over the San Andreas fault, piling in to the chapel at night to catch the show which we caught sometimes in English, sometimes in Spanish.

But I digress… One think I want to mention before I forget is that piñatas are not just for birthdays. Piñatas are great for any occasion! Sometimes I’d like to bring one home and tie it up in my apartment just because it’s a sunny Tuesday. Sadly I don’t have a bat to swing at it. Christmas piñatas are not out of the ordinary and if you see one as a party, be nice and let the little kids go first. Their tiny, ineffectual little swings are no threat to you. Once it starts getting to the bigger kids, the ten year olds, if there are more than a couple of them then you may as well have a seat because there is no way you’re getting a swing.

The issue of Santa Claus is an interesting one. Traditionally it is Nino Dios, baby Jesus, who brings gifts to all of the good boys and girls but Santa Claus has Hollywood backing him so his presence is felt more and more throughout the globe. Also, while a Nativity Scene is standard at any Mexican home, the baby Jesus is placed in the manger on Christmas Eve to commemorate the completion of the celebration.

As far as food goes I can’t think of any that are Christmas specific. Certainly there are decorated treats like cookies and cakes but nothing like the Yule Log in France or eggnog here in America. By the way, why is eggnog only available around the holidays? Is it something specific to the recipe? And why are there no other types of nog? I’m sure vanilla nog or orange nog or chocolate nog would be quite delicious. Anyway, as far as Mexican Christmas goes one of the foods that remains a constant is tamales. These require plenty of preparation and it is something in which everyone can get involved. The night before Christmas one can find all the women of the family making the tamales in the kitchen whilst the men are outside squeezing limes and dashing salt on to their Tecate.

I know what you’re thinking, nine days of singing and drinking culminating in a day of tamales and piñatas; it’s more than the human body can take! But wait, there’s more! Once you’ve got the hang of Beginning Mexican Christmas and intermediate Mexican Christmas, next comes Advanced Mexican Christmas. The first day of celebration actually comes on December 12th, a full four days before the Posadas begin. This is the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe who I mentioned above. From there are the Posadas, then Christmas Eve. At midnight you see if anyone is sober enough to drive and whoever is closest gets to drive everyone to midnight mass. Christmas Day comes with tamales and piñatas but it isn’t finished yet. Dec 28th is the Day of the Holy Innocents where we commemorate the deaths of the children ordered by King Herod upon hearing that the King of the Jews had been born (are we remembering Sunday school, everybody?). For some reason this day is celebrated in the same vein as April Fools Day where people play practical jokes on one another. Maybe not the most appropriate way to recognize the deaths of thousands of children but what do you expect? Everyone has been drinking for nearly two weeks. New Years comes and goes but it’s still not over yet. The final day of Christmas celebrations comes on January 6th, the Day of the Three Kings. This is the day we recognize the Three Wise Men and the gifts they presented to the baby Jesus. It is not uncommon for this to be the day when children receive gifts as opposed to Christmas Day.

So there it is, nearly a solid month of parties and drinking and gifts. 8 days of Chanukah has got nothing on this. You can keep your Miracles on 34th Street and your Wonderful Life, I’ll take a brown Christmas over a white Christmas any year.