México City’s Jamaica market returns to life adorned with Christmas piñatas

México City’s traditional public Jamaica market, which sells everything from art, flowers to food, has come back to life for Christmas after many vendors were forced to close their stalls last year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The market is adorned with hundreds of piñatas of all colors and sizes hanging from the ceilings with seven spikes representing the seven deadly sins; envy, sloth, gluttony, greed, lust, wrath, and pride.

In December 2020, the piñatas were left hanging after the country went into lockdown, forcing businesses to close down.

Delfina Chave, owner of a stall in the market selling fruit and piñatas had to close her stand for seven months due to the pandemic.

“When I returned to the market it looked like a ghost town,” she said, adding she is happy to have finally been able to open her stand this Christmas.

Fellow stand owner, Andrés Reyes, a 19-year-old who works with his selling traditional Mexican ingredients, agrees with Chave.

“A year ago it was very quiet, the market was very sad, there was no joy and now thank God we have the opportunity to be here again,” he said.

As for the shoppers, they can finally enjoy a little Christmas atmosphere after a tough year.

“I don’t think there is a child who doesn’t want a tree, who doesn’t want Santa Claus to arrive, or who doesn’t want a piñata. I think we are more than satisfied with that, seeing the joy, the light in the children’s eyes,” Chave said.

Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, México has registered 297,356 total deaths and 3,927,265 infections.