Devil Inside

It seems as if I must have already covered this topic from top to bottom but having observed yet another kiddie party this weekend, I'd like to say a few more words about piñatas.
First of all, according to Wikipedia, no one knows the true origins of the piñata. You can bet, however, that a game in which blindfolded children wield sticks wasn't invented by a mother. Can't you see us all standing around wringing our hands and yelling, "stop! you'll put your eye out!"
One piñata hypothesis is that the piñatas itself once represented the devil and the goodies inside represented the blessings he is withholding. This makes the idea of beating the crap out of the piñata a little easier to stomach. "Take that you Beelzebub, you!" Wham! Wham! Wham!
There's still a bit of the devil left in the seemingly innocuous piñata birthday bash. This is true even when parents go in for the non-violent, pull-the-individual-ribbons-till-the-loot-falls-out-style piñata. On Saturday I witnessed 15 birthday-party attendees all lined up to pull piñata ribbons. It's amazing how straight a line a group of five year olds can form when there's candy to be had. Not able to stand to suspense, or perhaps because he was possessed by the devil, the fourth kid in line proceeded to grab all the ribbons at once and give them a good yank thereby dislodging every ribbon but the one which would release the candy.
Once the candy started being shaken onto, ironically in the case of this party, the floor of the church parish hall, all hell broke loose. In a nanosecond, those orderly, lined up kids, morphed into something out of the Lord of the Flies. I'm just thankful my kid's nickname isn't Piggy.

song: Devil Inside • artist: INXS