2 in the fourteenth century , a european called marco polo visited china .
when he returned to europe he told everyone about a chinese tradition .
the chinese often made animals out of coloured paper and put seeds inside .
they hit the animals with a stick until they broke .
breaking the animals was thought to bring good luck .
the tradition soon became popular in Italy and Spain .
when the Spanish went to Mexico in the sixteenth century ,
they took the tradition with them . it quickly became very popular there ,too.