The Piñata is a game involving a blindfolded child trying to break a bright candy-and-toy-filled container (generally suspended with string from a tree branch or ceiling) with a stick. It has been used for hundreds of years to celebrate special occasions such as birthdays and Christmas. Spanish colonizers are thought to have brought the Piñata to Mexico, then the tradition went on to the Italians. According to legend, Marco Polo introduced the Piñata to the Italians after discovering it in the orient.
Piñata has come to mean the container itself. Piñatas are made from easily-breakable materials like straw or papier-mâché, and typically take the form of figures (human or animal) and latterly stars, vehicles, cartoon characters, or corporate mascots.
The word was also used for the process by which former Sandinista leaders made theirs part of the goods they nationalized while they held the government of Nicaragua.
The successor government accepted these appropiations.
