The Artifact: The Piñata

In this episode of STBYM’s The Artifact, Robert discusses the shrouded history of the piñata… 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi,
my name is Robert Lamb and this is the Artifact,
a short form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind,
focusing in on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time.

(00:23):
Chances are you've probably swung a broom handle at a
pinata before you know how this works. A brightly colored
paper mache, pottery, paper, cardboard, or cloth container is stuffed
full of candy or other treats and raised and lowered
by a rope as a blindfolded contestant takes wax at it.

(00:45):
After a few hysterical misses and punishing hits, the container
bursts and spills these treats on the ground to be
snatched up by eager hands. It's an activity and craft
strongly linked with Mexican customs, and is all so so
widely spread that it's easy to just take for granted.
I know, I did till I visited the Pinatas exhibit

(01:07):
at the Mengae International Museum in San Diego, California, running
through April thirty, twenty twenty three. The exhibit celebrates pinatas
as both a traditional craft and a form of contemporary art.
Sometimes aimed at social and political commentary. It was really
an eye opening exhibit from me into both the material
culture and the cutting humor of pinadas, and artists are

(01:31):
continuing to do a lot with this medium today. Another
area I'd never personally explored is the origin of the pinata,
a topic that the exhibit acknowledges is somewhat understudied. It
cites a twenty eighteen paper by Young Chin published in
the Fudan Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences titled From

(01:51):
the Dachinu to the Pinata, Tracing the alleged Chinese origin
of a Mexican tradition. In the paper, Chin explores the
possible connection between the Chinese traditions surrounding the docunu, or
beating or lashing of the spring cattle, and the Mexican
pinata tradition. The Dacinu is an old springtime ritual in

(02:12):
which a large clay statue of an ox is filled
with seeds and then shattered by the emperor or an
imperial representative, scattering its contents on the ground. The ritual
performance is still practiced in China today. The hypothesis then,
is that this practice may have spread from China to
Italy via the Silk Road and or the travels of

(02:34):
Marco Polo during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The name
pinata may be derived from pigna, a clay pot in
the shape of a pine cone in Italian traditions. Around
this time, Italian Linton customs sometimes entailed the shattering of small,
simple clay vessels filled with fruits or sweets. So it

(02:55):
is then proposed that this practice spread to the Americas
in the sixteenth century via Catholic Spanish missionaries who use
the practice as both a Catholic religious celebration and an
indoctrination tool for indigenous peoples. Now, obviously this is the
sort of practice that would just be inherently fun, as
this sort of ritual transcends language and beliefs, at least

(03:17):
in just the basic practice of shattering something, breaking something,
and finding a reward within. But it may also have
found a foothold in indigenous practices due to precontact rituals
of shattering clay pots in devotion to the Aztec solar
deity Withsulopotli. Now that's a long journey across multiple continents

(03:38):
and cultures, so the question remains, Is it possibly true?
Well Chin contends that we might tentatively attribute the origins
of the pinyada to Chinese customs, but that there's insignificant
evidence to make any definitive conclusions. So whatever the pinyada's
origins Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Aztec, or some mixture of them,

(04:00):
the pinata has become cemented as a distinctly Mexican and
Latin American tradition with broad international appeal. Tune in for
additional episodes of The Artifact or The Monster Fact each week.
As always, you can email us at contact at stuff
to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your

(04:28):
Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you listen to your favorite shows.