Saturday, May 7, 2011

Piñata

Piñatas are considered to be fun and give candy! However, the design of the Piñata has always been a mystery to me. After some research what I found surprised me. What we now know as the piñata was a merge between a Mayan celebration and a custom the Spaniards used to attract people. The Mayans used a pot and would put offerings inside. They would suspend the pot and cover their eyes, and when they broke it what fell out was the offering for their Aztec war god, Huitzilopochitl. The piñata was then designed to have 7 points (as the image above shows). Each point represents the seven deadly sins. The colors and decorations are the Devil's way to attract humans. It hangs above the person's head because they are looking up to Heaven. Then the person is blindfolded because they are guided with faith. The stick used to break it is the virtue which symbolizes the only thing that can destruct evil. The candy coming out is the reward for having faith and it is for everyone to share. So, I know we are supposed to blog about design, but I feel that this is design (just not in the Abode/Mac/printing way). The piñata was designed with a specific purpose, and it now has been redesigned for commercial purposes.

P.S I apologize again for posting my posts so late!

18 comments:

  1. Wow, that's really interesting. I never knew that pinatas had such a deeper meaning. This makes me want to go and hit a pinata.

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  2. This is definitely design! I love learning the history of these types of things. But in a way it's pretty sad because we've all probably hit a pinata, but how many were shaped nothing like this! The last pinata that I saw was shaped like Dora the Explorer. Talk about changing traditions...

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  3. I knew there was a tradition and design purpose for the pinata, but it never crossed my mind to do any research and find out more about it. Awesome post!

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  4. This is really interesting, i never realized how much symbolism is associated with pinatas. I always just think of them as party favors.

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  5. Wow, that's crazy! I remember reading about Huitzilopochitl in our Mexico City art history class. Its strange though that the origins go all the way back to the Aztec creator stories but also include the idea of the seven deadly sins. I did not think that the idea of the sins went back that far.

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  6. Cool. I didn't know about the origins of the pinata. Thanks for the education.

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  7. Thanks for sharing the history on that--very cool.

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  8. i always thought they were just a party activity. Never realized that the act of using one is symbolic.

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  9. When I was little and went party city or some other party store I think the pinatas are so cool but I always wondered where the actual act of hitting something that at some parties resembled a colorful donkey came from. I used to have them at my childhood parties and loved running around and grabbing for the candy and little trinkets. Thanks for sharing the history! I have always wondered about it.

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  10. This is very cool, I too remember reading about Huitzilopochitl in Mexico City art history class. I also like the colors and the seven deadly sins meaning behind it!

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  11. That is really interesting background information. I like that there was a ritualistic aspect to it.

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  12. Wow, I knew that pinatas must have had some sort of history, but I never bothered to look it up. Thanks for the rundown!

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  13. This was an interesting post! I had no idea that the pinata had more meaning/history behind it besides bringing children together at parties until now. Thanks Lili!

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  14. Good to know! Next time I hit one I'll think about it's history! Ole!

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  15. I never really gave much thought to piñatas I live how deep their meaning is.

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  16. Wow, its nice to see how much it's design has adapted to social purposes and changed over time.

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  17. I had no idea pinatas were religious! That's very interesting.

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  18. But wait, was it Aztec or Mayan? You used them interchangeably in your post.

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