Oh, The Horror! Oh, The Candy!!

This photo of a small boy, dressed as the grim reaper and swinging at a human shaped pinata puts me in mind of the story of the first pinata.......

The tiny village of Armargosa, now a ghost town in deep south Texas, was once a modest community in northern Mexico. The villagers were poor, and everyone looked out for everyone else. Life was hard, but by pulling together and sharing equally, they managed to survive with some dignity. The one flaw in the glass was Omar Pinata.Omar Pinata existed to serve as a horrible example. Parents would warn their children to behave, lest they turn out like the village disgrace. Omar pushed the bounderies of civic tolerence time after time, and the long suffering townspeople came to view him as a burden from the heavens, to be bourne with grace. Until one day.The tiny village was regionally famous for the statue of the virgin, donated by a wealthy tourist who was saved from savage indians by the village priest. The priest and the local tribe had an understanding--whenever tourists happened by, they would be "kidnapped" by the tribe, and then "rescued' by the brave man of god. This planned had a 100% success rate--it worked both times a tourist arrived in the tiny village. The first time resulted in the awe inspiring statue; the second time involved a travelling theatre troupe, so the village received a mild epidemic of venereal diseases. Anyway--the village's beloved image of la virgin was in need of a new mantle and robe. The poor but proud townspeople dug deep into their meager coffers, and gave all they could. When the collection plate passed in front of Omar, he grabbed it and ran out of the church, to the dismayed cries of his fellow citizens. Omar had become over confident of the town's tolerence of his antisocial behavior. As a body, the enraged townsfolk pursued the laughing Omar Pinata to the town square, where he was captured and immediately lynched by the furious congregation. Seeing Omar swinging from the one tree in the sqaure was not enough for the disgusted people, who gathered sticks and tools, and set upon the swinging corpse, beating it until the pockets burst, and all the stolen money spilled out into the town square.When the townspeople saw the happy faces of the laughing children, diving after the loose change and peppermints that had been in Omar's pockets, they realized that Omar had given them a great gift. In his memory they lynched a villager every year and stuffed their pockets, but when this started to have a negative effect on village morale the change was made to papier mache'. Just don't ask about the donkey shaped part. Horrible beyond the telling......