Special Mexican Games to Share with Friends

Every country has its own traditions and games, but Mexico has some of the best. Here are a couple of our games that can be introduced at any party.

Lotería

One of the most popular board games in Mexico is Loteria. It is very similar to Bingo, but instead of numbers, rows, and columns, the boards have multiple images and depictions of Mexican characters, ingredients or things that makes it more visually engaging. Each image has a different name and the one who holds the deck (known as the caller) selects a random card and gives a humorous or funny rhymes before calling the real name out.

An example would be La Escalera card (The stairs), to which the caller would announce as:

“Use me carefully and step by step, don’t you try and jump ahead.”

Players then can use either a chip or, most commonly, a bean to mark the figure down when found in their boards. First to complete the whole board has to yell out: Lotería!

Piñatas

No Mexican party would be fully complete without a piñata making its appearance at some point. In the beginning, piñatas had a very strong catholic symbolism, with each of the 7 spikes representing the 7 deadly sins and blinded (as faith is) you are able to defeat them and get rewards in exchange.

Nowadays piñatas come in all shapes and forms, from cartoons and objects, to real life characters. It’s not only fun to hang and beat them until they explode into a shower of sweets, toys and all types of goodies, but getting together with family or friends and making one from scratch, can also be quite an entertaining activity.

Start by covering a clay pot or balloon with paper maché and glue, and cover it with colorful tissue paper and maybe even carton cone and wires - whatever helps you to achieve the desired effect.