Last week I returned to my favorite small museum in Mexico City, The Museum of Popular Art, to see the entries for their annual piñata contest. This is their 19th annual contest celebrating one of Mexico's most iconic holiday traditions. In case you don't know, a piñata is a decorated container holding candy, which is broken during Christmas or birthday celebrations. The original piñatas were round and had seven cones which represented the seven deadly sins. Breaking the piñata symbolized defeating evil, and the candy inside was the reward for resisting the temptation of sin. Today, piñatas can be decorated to represent most anything from animals, to cartoon characters to Santa Claus. (Oh, my! The horror of beating Santa with a stick!) The more than 200 artists who participated in this year's contest certainly demonstrate a grand variety of themes.
The first place winner of the contest wins a prize of 20,000 pesos (around 1000 US dollars). The core of the piñata must be a pottery vessel (as were the original piñatas), and they must be decorated using only cardboard, papier mache, colored tissue paper or crepe paper. No plastic or metal is permitted in their construction.
Each year the entries are hung from the balconies of the upper floors to the museum. They will be on display until December 14th.
The artisans' creative works go far beyond any of the typical piñatas that you will see for sale in the markets. Here are a few of the entries in this year's contest...
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