Photo by peasap
I grew up in El Salvador going to Piñatas, not fiestas de cumpleaños, but Piñatas. If you guessed that the smacking of the hanging toy was the main attraction, you’re right. The thing is I don’t remember ever having fun when it was my turn to grab the stick and hit the swinging piñata. I never felt tall enough, strong enough, or maybe I simply was never interested enough.
I was reminded about this feeling of childhood inadequacy last week when I took my toddler to a friend’s second birthday. The fun party had a Venezuelan and a Dora theme. We ate sandwichon for the first time ever and loved it, tried to sing the Venezuelan birthday song (thanks to Marianna for posting the lyrics!), jumped in the Dora bouncer and ran to get in the circle when it came time to hit the piñata. Camila was loving the giant, crepe-paper Dora.
But then, her nightmare began. She had no idea Dora would get beaten up with a stick by her friends! I had no idea my daughter was so sensitive. Holding on to my leg, she remained semi-brave watching the scene in front of her, but then, something happened and Dora snapped from the string and fell with a thud to the floor. Oh no! That was it! Camila lost it right there. I had to get her as far as possible from the “crime scene.” She didn’t want to get close to it at all. She wasn’t even interested in the candy I was insisting she have. For some insane reason I wanted to see her madly dashing for candy on all fours, and having fun at it. But my daughter just isn’t into piñatas.
I know, she’s only two. She’ll probably outgrow it, or maybe not. Maybe I was just as sensitive and never outgrew it and that’s why I never enjoyed it. However, I still enjoy the idea of it and the tradition it represents.
I’m sure if it hadn’t been one of her favorite cartoon characters, she wouldn’t have freaked out. I mean, think about it-she dances and sings and talks to Dora on occasions and now she has to see her get shred to pieces. How much are children able to disconnect and disassociate? Many kids were upset, many were not. Does it have to do with their level of connection with the character or are they just able to see it as play, whereas Camila identified it with violence?
Photo by gusdrinks
I don’t mean to be a piñata-pooper. I love the tradition of a piñata and want to have one every year for every occasion. But why do we have to use the image of our children’s favorite amigos as a piñata? What happened to the original seven-pointed star symbolic of the seven sins? At least there’s a point to smashing those to pieces! Or how about a number, a donkey, or even a Star Wars Death Star (for real??)?
The host of the party was concerned that her daughter would also have a melt down at the time of the Dora destruction. She thinks that since her girl went through the whole process of buying the piñata, filling it with candy, lugging her to the park, etc she already understood what was going to happen and was able to enjoy it.
This makes me think there’s still hope for us and many piñata-filled years to come. Camila’s second birthday is coming up next month and I want to start incorporating this tradition. We’ll take baby steps. We’ll start with a more age-appropriate pull-string piñata. Ok, maybe it’s not as fun or loud or destructive but I’ll bet anything pre-schoolers will get a kick out of it. I found this blog, Thingamababy, with great instructions on how to make your own pull-string piñata.
Maybe next year we’ll take it a step further by making our own piñata in some crazy shape. I’m not a crafty chica, but this could become a good tradition within a tradition. Here’s a good video for that:
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSvgdIOwJ4k&feature=related
Piñataboy is also a good resource for piñata-making instructions and inspirations for different shapes to experiment with.
If you want to know more about the actual tradition of the piñata and where it comes from (would you believe it’s been traced back to China?!) then this is a great read. It will give more meaning to our yearly smash-fest.
But, no matter how much Camila grows to love piñatas and I let go of my childhood fears, I shall never, ever get her a talking piñata that “speaks” every time it gets smacked. Huh?
Have any tips on how to ease a toddler into a piñata-fest? Any funny stories to share? Sure you do!
If you like what we’re talking about sign up for free SpanglishBaby updates via email or via RSS. You’ll like it.
Cute story! We went to a four year old’s birthday party the other day, and they had a Blancanieves pull-string piñata. The kids LOVED it since they were really only interested in all the candy and cool prizes on the floor. For small kids it really does seem like the way to go.
Oh, poor baby! I agree with you about the characters being the pinatas. For the past 2 years, my cousin has been buying the big “mexican” star pinatas. They are more colorful, bigger, brighter, and SOOOOO much easier to break! This was a great post. I’m glad I found you. (o:
Ay Ana, pobrecita. Clarissa my daughter is also very sensitive and once when she was watching a Disney’s movie Christmas special, both Minnie and Daisy got in an argument and Minnie fell skating and Clarissa started crying for more than 10 minutes and she really thought that Minnie was hurt. I was told that their brain don’t start to differentiate truth from fiction until they are about 6 or 7 years old so in their minds these characters are real.
My niece had a princess birthday party when she turned 4 and freaked out when they started hitting Aurora, she cried and cried and it was really sad. So the next year she had an Ariel princess theme and the piñata was of Ursula the sea witch, they were still able to incorporate a character of the theme and by it being the villain, she was okay with beating it with a stick. As you say it is a tradition that I am sure many parents don’t approve and think it is violent. I personally never took as a violence experience I enjoyed hitting the piñata it was the trampling kids afterwards and getting the candy that always got too scary for me.
Marianna- Do you have any photos of the Ursula pinata? I was recently asked to make one and would like to gather some ideas. Thanks!
-Ross
Oh, I looove piñatas too! I think Camila will outgrow this fear as we all did. Look, all of latin@s are fine! I did a piñata for Adrian’s first birthday and he was scared of hitting it but he enjoyed the candies and did like it more on his second bday.
as for myself, I never thought I was strong enough to hit it but I was just waiting for the strong one to break it and dive right in the candy and toys, it was the main feature of the party of course!
BTW: Sanduchón??? I want some! My aunts make delicious ones that I haven’t tried in ages!! I did offer some little sanduchitos for Adrian’s first birthday
I really enjoyed this post
I’ve never understood the beating of beloved characters either. With my boys, I’ve stuck with inanimate objects. And no blindfolds. Still, the pinata is always the highlight of a party. Now that my boys are entering school age, I want them to experience making pinatas themselves. It’s really shocking how much money is involved for a store-bought one. Wanted to share this post/photo with you from a high school where I taught. The kids did an amazing job creating their own pinatas that decorated the classroom before the end-of-semester fiesta: http://foreignlanguagefun.com/2008/12/pinata-land/
My dear Ana, you are officially a piñata-pooper!!! I love piñatas! Vanessa has hit a few so far in her short life and she seems to enjoy it. Maybe she’s inherited her violent streak from moi!!!
I do agree however that it’s wrong to use images of our kids’ favorite characters. As you know, Vane’s birthday just passed and since she’s obsessed with Toy Story, I was looking for a Woody or a Buzz piñata, but they don’t exist – which was probably a good thing…who knows how she would’ve reacted. We ended up getting a colorful burro like the one in the picture above and it all worked out fine – except that I had to be the one to destroy it because it was so difficult to break!!! Ja, ja – it was like being a child again, loved it, you piñata-pooper!!!!
My parents used to make and sell custom-made piñatas at their shop, and some customers picked piñatas that represented a villain or a character their kids didn’t like so that they’d have fun beating them up!
I loved piñatas so much as a kid that I even had one at my quinceañera. I figured I got to call the shots, and I also figured it would be my last piñata. I was right…sigh.
That is tooooo funny! I have never thought of a piñata in that light and now know that anytime I see one at a future event I will think of this story amigas!
Thank Goodness our young ones often outgrow the bad memories!
I´m so happy our piñata story put a smile on all of your faces. I laugh just thinking about mi. Ay, que mala mami!
Thanks @keen and @marianna for the great tip of using the villain of the story instead. Makes much more sense! Although, aggressive in it´s way, but easier to make up a wild story around it and make it more fun over all.
@diane-thanks for sharing that picture! As soon as Camila is in her dual-immersion kindergarten I´m going to talk to the teacher about this idea!
@deanna-pull string this year for sure! I´ll let u know how it goes.
@Liz-if Camila´s still not brave enough next year, then we´ll go with the star piñata..or donkey like Roxana´s.
@Dariela-I LOVED sandwichones! How come I had never had those sinful sandwiches before? Invítame!
Ha, great post!!
YES!! I have a funny story too from my little niece! http://thecraftychica.blogspot.com/2008/02/tinkerbell-rip-pinata-tragedy.html