Pinatas to Celebrate Christmas in Mexico Sky News
go to original December 23, 2013

Some Mexican artisans are putting a twist on the traditional pinata, giving them a holiday flare ahead of Christmas Eve smash-up. Gavino Garay reports. (Reuters)

Pinatas are an essential part of a traditional Christmas in Mexico, a mostly Catholic country.

Although pinatas come in different shapes and sizes nowadays, the traditional star pinata must have seven spikes representing the seven deadly sins: greed, gluttony, sloth, pride, envy, wrath and lust.

... The pinata tradition is highly symbolic. The breaking of the pinata symbolizes man's struggle to fight temptation and his wish to eliminate evil.

The pinata itself represents Satan. When it is broken by a stick, symbolising virtue, fruit and peanuts fall to the ground, reminiscent of grace and God's reward for choosing the right path. Sometimes the person hitting the pinata is blindfolded as a reminder of the person's faith in God's will.

The origin of the pinata is unclear. Some say that it was found by Marco Polo on his travels to China and brought to Europe, it was then introduced to Mexico during the Spanish Conquest; others say that the tradition stems back to Aztec times, where a clay pot was painted with the face Tlaloc, the God of Water: The pot was filled with water and broken to symbolise a thunder storm and the downpour of rain.

Regardless of its origin, the pinata eventually took on religious symbolism.

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