Christmas Party in Zacango

In the spirit of the holidays, we had a Christmas party in Zacango on the Sunday, December 13 at Bruce and Jaime’s house. The sign outside posted the events beginning at 6; however, since Bruce, Manuel and several others were still playing soccer, Jaime and I tried to entertain the throngs of children gathering outside of the house. The excitement was building.

Handful by handful, we filled the two piñatas that Bruce and Jaime bought from a woman in the community who makes extra money by making and selling piñatas during the holidays. I bought a third piñata from her for all of the extra candy that would be ant infested if it wasn’t put to good use.

Before the main event of piñatas, most of the children of the community burned off excess energy lucha libre style while parents and community members laughed and clapped, thoroughly entertained. The party moved outside when I gave the children chispas (sparklers), a standard at any party. In less than five minutes the air was filled with flying sparks in every direction giving the whole scene a slightly dangerous, though entirely Mexican party atmosphere. Some of the teenage boys managed to snag a handful of the chispas, which started a chispa battle as they hurled them at each other. It’s a good thing fire codes are non existent.

Thankfully, before the dried zacate caught on fire, the blue piñata was strung across the road ready to be broken. The smallest children lined up to get the first hits at the piñata. We all sang the piñata song to mark how much time each child was allowed.

Dale, dale, dale.

No pierdas el tino

Porque si lo pierdes,

Pierdes el camino.

Ya le diste uno,

Ya le diste dos,

Ya le diste tres y tu tiempo se acabó.

When the piñata finally burst, I was more than surprised when all of the youth and adults who were watching the festivities made a mad dash for the candy that was scattered underneath the piñata. The pushing and shoving from the children made complete sense given that there was unfair competition.

The second piñata broke with the help of a blind folded Bruce after several wild misses with the bat that dispersed the crowd of children. With shouts of Don Luis, the community mayor, the children convinced Luis to be turned around three times while blind folded and swing at our last piñata before he decided it was easier to throw off the blind fold and rip the remaining shreds of the piñata.

With our quota of sugar, laughs and entertainment, we said our goodbyes until the New Year.