海角大神

Mar铆a de Lourdes Ortiz Zacar铆as swiftly cuts hundreds of strips of newsprint and colored crepe paper needed to make a pi帽ata, soothed by Norte帽o music on the radio while measuring pieces by feel.

鈥淭he measurement is already in my fingers,鈥� Ms. Ortiz Zacar铆as says with a laugh.

She has been doing this since she was a child, in the family-run business alongside her late mother, who learned the craft from her father. Pi帽atas haven鈥檛 been displaced by more modern customs, and her family has been making a living off them into its fourth generation.

Ms. Ortiz Zacar铆as calls it 鈥渕y legacy, handed down by my parents and grandparents.鈥�

Business is steady all year, mainly with birthday parties, but it really picks up around Christmas. That鈥檚 because pi帽atas are interwoven with 海角大神 traditions in Mexico.

There are countless designs these days, based on everything from Disney characters to political figures. But the most traditional style of pi帽ata is a sphere with seven spiky cones, which have a religious origin.

Each cone represents one of the seven deadly sins: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, and pride. Hitting the paper-mache globe with a stick is a symbolic blow against sin, with the added advantage of releasing the candy within.

Pi帽atas weren鈥檛 originally filled with candy, nor made mainly of paper. Grandparents in Mexico can remember a time a few decades ago when pi帽atas were clay pots covered with paper and filled with hunks of sugar cane, fruits, and peanuts. The treats were received quite gladly, though falling pieces of the clay pot posed a bit of a hazard.

But the tradition goes back even further. Some say pi帽atas can be traced back to China, where paper-making originated.

In Mexico, they were apparently brought by the Spanish conquerors, but may also replicate pre-Hispanic traditions.

Spanish chronicler Juan de Grijalva wrote that pi帽atas were used by Augustine monks in the early 1500s at a convent in the town of Acolman, just north of Mexico City. The monks received written permission from Pope Sixtus V to hold a year-end Mass as part of the celebration of the birth of Christ.

But the Indigenous population already celebrated a holiday around the same time to honor the god of war, Huitzilopochtli. And they used something similar to pi帽atas in those rites.

The pre-Hispanic rite involved filling clay jars with precious cocoa seeds 鈥� the stuff from which chocolate is made 鈥� and then ceremonially breaking the jars.

鈥淭his was the meeting of two worlds,鈥� said Walther Boelsterly, director of Mexico City鈥檚 Museum of Popular Art. 鈥淭he pi帽ata and the celebration were used as a mechanism to convert the native populations to Catholicism.鈥�

Pi帽atas are also used in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, Peru, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, mainly at children鈥檚 parties.

The pi帽ata hasn鈥檛 stood still. Popular figures this year range from Barbie to Spider-Man. Ms. Ortiz Zacar铆as鈥� family makes some new designs most of the year, but they return to the seven-pointed style around Christmas because of its longstanding association with the holiday.

The family started their business in Acolman, where Ms. Ortiz Zacar铆as鈥� mother, Romana Zacar铆as Camacho, was known as 鈥渢he queen of the pi帽atas鈥� before her death.

Ms. Ortiz Zacar铆as鈥� 18-year-old son, Jairo Alberto Hern谩ndez Ortiz, is the fourth generation to take up the centuries-old craft.

鈥淭his is a family tradition that has a lot of sentimental value for me,鈥� he said.

This story was reported by The Associated Press.