¡Piñata Party!

The mere image of the colourful crepe paper figures of stars and beloved characters is enough to bring back memories of childhood birthday parties, blindfolded and ready to take a swing for the sweet treats hidden inside the decorative piñata .

Piñata traditions have changed over the centuries and vary from one part of Mexico to another, but over the last two weeks, our students have had the unique opportunity to build (and bust!) their very own celebration creations.

Last week, each of our smaller sub-groups of students had the opportunity to get inspired using colourful crepe paper to build their very own piñatas . We saw everything from blooming flowers and rainbow frills to “Bad Bunny” references from our reggaetoneros. It was a great opportunity for students to work as a team while expressing their artistic side and personal interests.

While the piñatas helped to decorate and bring color and life into our classrooms over the next few days, it finally came time to seek out the sweet treats inside. While we were sad to see them go, we definitely had a blast bursting them open!

Yucatecos have their own unique way of bursting piñatas . Rather than hitting them blindfolded with a bat as in other parts of Mexico, here we head for the attack with our eyes open and our fists shut tight.

Each group lined up to take a swing as the treasures inside, and as each individual took their turn, the rest of us sang the traditional piñata tune:

         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 ACABO!

To say we had a blast is an understatement!  From creation to destruction (and all the sweet treats in between!) the piñata workshop has helped us to “learn by doing” as we discoverd this important aspect of Mexican culture.