Piñata

08Feb12

No piñata pictures yet, but here's a statue of Evita from Resistencia's Plaza de Mayo

Disciples of Christ kids from all around Resistencia are buzzing with anticipation for the annual campamento, a children’s overnight camping trip, which takes place next week. We attended a planning meeting for the trip and learned some new vocabulary words.  You can probably guess what’s in store for the children:

Juegos de integración: get-to-know-you games
Títeres: puppets
Almuerzo a la canasta: potluck-style lunch

One word from the meeting was already familiar to us: “piñata.” Something about the frenzied grabbing of candy must transcend cultural difference, because Argentine kids apparently like piñatas just as much as kids in the U.S. do.

It turns out that the wise, kid-savvy campamento organizers have a novel plan for how to create a thoughtful, reflective experience out of the piñata’s traditional mad dash for dulces (sweets).

The key ingredients in the piñata plan seem to be teamwork, prayer, and mess. Rather than using a pre-made piñata, the children are going to work together to construct their own, using flour paste (sticky!) and scraps of paper on which they’ve written private prayers and messages to God. The piñata thereby represents the faith community that the kids will build together during the campamento. The act of breaking the piñata on the final day symbolizes the release of the children’s prayers into God’s hands, and the idea that, even though the community will soon disband, each person takes home new knowledge, a renewed spirit, and of course, candy.

As the organizers explained the piñata activity, I thought about my own childhood piñata experiences: the delight of being allowed to hit something with a stick, the delicious chaos of the candy scramble. And I also remembered how important it was for me as a young person to have playful spaces in which to express and develop my own spirituality.

Needless to say, I can’t wait for next week.

Filed under: Argentina, Resistencia, Vocabulary, Youth   |  5 Comments
Tags: camping, candy, children's spirituality, games, juegos, piñata, play, resistencia argentina