ORIGINS
Piñatas may actually have originated in what country?
China
Modern piñatas are filled with treats, while ancient piñatas were filled with ______.
seeds
The main celebration where we see the most piñatas =
birthday parties
To make your own piñata, you can use a _______________ or a piece of _______________ for the "body."
baloon, cardboard
Piñatas are typically made of ______ ______, and are attributed to China where paper originated
paper-mâché
Inside the piñata, however, were tempting sweets and treats, representing the pleasures of ________.
LIFE
A main holiday where the piñata has also become a tradition =
Christmas
This custom spread to Spain, but involved a clay _______ called la olla, derived from a colloquial Arabic word for a terracotta water jug. Paper decorations and ribbons were wrapped around the item to make it festive.
pot
The person wielding the stick of virtue represents _________, which can defeat evil, and the treats represented the hope of reward.
faith
blindfolded, spin around
Missionaries brought the custom to New Spain, where it encountered a similar tradition. To honor the Aztec god of war, a decorated, filled pot was broken in the temple at the feet of the god's statue. Missionaries employed the colorful piñata custom to teach the ____________ religion
Christian
While piñatas in the United States are usually filled with candy, those in Mexico can also contain ________ (along with candy). These often include oranges and guavas.
fruit
The piñata is usually hung from something high like a tree, using a ______________
string or rope
A traditional Mexican shape for piñatas is a spherical shape with seven conical points symbolizing the seven _________ _________.
deadly sins
During the flourishing times of the Aztecs, they celebrate the birth of their god, Huitzilopochtli by decorating clay pots with colorful feathers and filled with meaningful ornaments. The pot is then smashed with a stick and the treasured that have spilled represented their __________to the god.
offering
In the book The Travel of Marco Polo, written by the Italian explorer Marco Polo, it is explained that pinatas are from Chinese origin, and that they were originally used in Chinese ______ _______ celebrations.
New Year