Making Origami Pig is an excellent (and fun!) way to boost cognitive skills, creativity, and other STEM skills

Article Contents

1. The symbolism of Pig
2. Making the Origami Pig
3. Materials needed for Origami Pig
4. Instructions to make an Origami Pig
5. What will you develop and learn?

The symbolism of Pig

In most cultures today, the pig is associated with negative meaning and symbolism – ignorance, greed, laziness and unclean.

But in the ancient world, the pig was most often seen as a symbol of fertility and abundance. It was also seen as a sacred animal to many gods, like Isis in Egypt, Ceres in Rome and Demeter in Greece.

The native Americans perceived the pig as a bringer of rain which is important for fertilizing the earth. For Celts, the pig is a symbol of strength, love, fertility, good luck and prosperity. For Hindus, the pig is an aspect of goddess Vishnu that she uses to save the goddess of the earth. In Egypt, the pig is sacred to god Seth, the god of desert, storms, and foreigners. The pig represents the twelfth sign of Chinese zodiac. It also represents the abundance, wealth and friendliness.

As already mentioned, in some cultures and religions today, the pig has a more negative association. In Buddhism, the pig represents one of The three poisons – delusion, greed, and hatred. The Tree poisons are considered to be three afflictions or character flaws that every person carries inside. In Judaism and Islam, the pig is seen as unclean. Christians see it as vile and rude creature and an expression of greed. Also, it is often associated with Satan because of the footprints she leaves.

Making the Origami Pig

Enough of interesting symbolism. Children love Pigs since they are often popular cartoon characters and are shown as cute and nice characters.  

As we already mentioned in our article Develop math reasoning skills with origami, origami is a great way to develop a broad range of skills, including mathematical thinking, fine motor skills, patience and resistance to frustration. We won’t talk too much, so we can immediately start with the fun stuff.

Today we’ll show you how to make this simple and super cute Origami Pig and bring a smile to the face of anyone who sees it.

Materials needed for Origami Pig

• Plain A4 paper or colored paper
• Your hands!
• Bonus: colored pencils or markers for decoration

Instructions to make an Origami Pig

If you’re more visual type, you can check the step by step instructions video on how to make an origami pig at the beginning of an article. Or if you like the static instructions, check the diagram below.

*Instructions taken from Pinterest

What will you develop and learn?

• Develop hand-eye coordination
• Attention and concentration
• Patience
• Math concepts, geometry, proportions, and fractions
• Confidence and resistance to frustration
• Logical reasoning and problem solving

We hope you’ll enjoy making this simple origami pig. And if you’re interested in more origami, we recommend you check the simple origami house or look at other origami shapes we have a guide for. Happy folding!

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