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The ancient Aztecs celebrated the birthday of their god of war, Huitzilopochtli, by placing a clay pot decorated with feathers on a pole. The pot was filled with tiny treasures that fell out when the pot was broken with a stick. The Mayans played a sport where the player was blindfolded and tried to hit a pot suspended by a rope. When Spanish friars tried to convert the local peoples, they incorporated the two traditions above into a game for religious instruction. They covered the traditional clay pot with colored paper and attached seven pointed cones to represent the seven deadly sins. The blindfold represented faith, and the stick stood for virtue. The goodies inside the piņata symbolized the riches of the kingdom of heaven. |
