February 7, 2020July 6, 2020 Amy

The Piñata Party

Honduras

“Hit! Hit! Then lots of candy!”

That’s how my wide eyed two-year-old described his first piñata experience.

The traditional papier mâché piñata is very much an ingrained birthday tradition here in Honduras. For those who have never experienced a piñata party, here is a short description: Each child must take turns smashing the papier mâché object with a short stubby stick to the count of diez (10) until the “dinosaur,” “princess,” “Superman,” “robot,” or “Peppa Pig” figure breaks apart and loads of candy spills out onto the floor below. All the children (and some of the adults!) immediately drop to the floor and pounce on the candy as they fill up their goody bags.

Violence and candy: a mother’s worst nightmare

“Piñata” is the name of the papier maché object we hit in order to get the candy hidden inside. The tradition comes from the seven pointed piñata which represented the seven deadly sins. In the Catholic tradition, one was bashing the sins for a sweet reward: candy. Piñata is also the generic word in Spanish for a birthday party. These celebrations are often hosted in the reserved section of fast food chains (such as Burger King and McDonalds.) On the one hand, this play area provides a safe space where toddlers can enjoy themselves (hard to come by in Tegucigalpa.) On the other hand, the food selection is not exactly healthy. When I asked the waitress for a glass of milk, she gave me a strange look and replied that they only had soda pop. Unsurprisingly, my children devoured their meals happily: chicken nuggets, or cheeseburger, fries, and a chocolate cookie. And then proceeded to bounce off the walls of the indoor climbing frames. (At one party, my son ate so much blue cake that his poo came out green! I panicked until “Mr. Google” reassured me that this was a common occurrence after ingesting too much food coloring.)

Piñata Party: Step-by-step

The making of a piñata from scratch is a process that can take several days to complete.

Step 1: Shape the metal body out of metal wire.

Step 2: Cover the skeleton in newspaper and glue paste. Let dry.

Step 3: Cover the newspaper in white scrap paper and glue paste. Let dry.

Step 4: Cover the white paper in bright colorful tissue paper to “dress” the character.

Step 5: Don’t forget the stick! That too must be covered in matching crepe paper.

Step 6: Make a small hole in the top of the piñata and fill it with candy.

Step 7: Then hang the object from a piñata hook (here every house has one) with sturdy rope.

Step 8: When it’s time, the children gather round and take turns hitting the object with the stick until it breaks and the candy spills out. (The “Piñata dad” is in charge of swinging the object around at different heights.)

Step 9: Hand out little baggies and the children all lunge down at the candy and gather as much as they can.

Step 10: The room falls silent as everyone gobbles up the candy.

How it begins

It all starts with the invitations: elaborate personalized cards announcing a party theme such as princesses, unicorns, and ballerinas for girls. Robots, dinosaurs, pirates, or Paw Patrol for boys. There are balloons, matching plates, decorations on the walls, elaborate gift bags, a matching professionally decorated cake and of course the piñata itself. There is often a private caterer for the food (tacos or BBQ.) Venue permitting, a large bouncy castle is set up outdoors for the kids to play in. The treat bags usually include cheap plastic gender specific toys (so much pollution!) and even more candy. At first, I saw these piñata invitations as the perfect opportunity to meet other mums of students from my son’s class. Unfortunately, it’s usually the nannies who are sent along to accompany the children. The mothers appear at the very end of the event- dressed up to the nines in heels and summer dresses – just in time for the cake!

Some would say I smartly avoided our daughters 1st party by going on holiday for the entire month of May. However, I could not escape the social pressure to throw a party for our son’s 3^rd birthday. When asked to pick a theme, he vacillated between: Spiderman, Cars, Monkey and Dinosaur. Mom’s choice of an Ocean theme won out in the end and I reserved a whale shape piñata at Rosa’s shop on Calle de las Piñatas. The catch? Being a bit of a granola mum, I wanted to do everything by myself and keep it as healthy as possible. I spent hours combing Pinterest searching for decoration and food ideas. We bought decorations (which I planned to save and reuse later in my classroom) and made decorative fish out of paper plates. It is a delicate balance between “keeping up with the Joneses” and wanting to do it my way. So much lavish and excess when at the same time there are children going hungry and people leaving the country in droves (on the caravan) just outside our walls.

Everyone gets a turn hitting the piñata even 84-year-old nana got a thrill at smashing the big blue whale.

Don’t forget the food

I am that mom.

The one who stashes away the leftover piñata candy and reuses it for their next birthday party. (I secretly wish I could find a way to fill the piñata with carrot sticks.)

I kept the menu simple and healthy: veggies and dip (plated in the form of an octopus), chips and salsa, fresh fruit skewers, egg sandwiches, tuna sandwiches, homemade chocolate cake with creme cheese frosting, blue Jell-O cups with graham crumb sand (even though it was the low sugar variety; most popular by far.) A friend later admitted that I was probably the only mother to serve raw veggies along with fruit skewers at a piñata party in the whole of Honduras!

For his fourth birthday, I applied lessons learned and invited a smaller group of friends. The food was catered. The teacher in me went to town on the dinosaur theme. We set up several stations based on dinosaurs: a theme reading corner, a dress-up box, and dinosaur rubbing drawing table. I encouraged the children to color and decorate their paper loot bags with dinosaur stickers. Afterwards, they got to break their own frozen dinosaur ice eggs  which held a hidden dinosaur toy.

Our final piñata coincided with our daughters second birthday. We were nearing the end of our posting in Honduras, it was also a goodbye party. We prepared the open air venue in our gated community. We enjoyed setting up the tables and chairs for the guests. I chose a “tipico” theme and went to town on the Honduran en Lenca inspired decorations.

Unfortunately, the day of our party, news came of a group of violent protesters taking over the streets in the city. The Embassy employees were ordered to stay home. Half of the guest called to say they were confined to their houses. We could smell the tear gas from our garden. Only the Honduran friends dared to risk the drive and show up. We had food to spare and time to talk with the neighbors from the compound. The children stuffed their faces regardless and had a nice time playing outside in our little safely padded corner of the world: Quinta Bella, Tegucigalpa, Honduras.