What is Cinco De Mayo?

I don’t recall Cinco De Mayo being anything until I was in my teens.  It wasn’t a big deal, even though I live in a community largely populated by people of Mexican descent.  Then all of a sudden people started going nuts with it.

People were showing Mexican pride with massive parties and parades…and rowdy drunken violence.  Now it seems to be equally celebrated by Mexican and white people, who basically use it as an excuse to get really drunk, usually on tequila (I don’t care for tequila, give me good old American whiskey any day).

If you ask most people what Cinco De Mayo is they would say Mexican Independence Day…and they would be wrong.  Almost no one I’ve talked to knows why they are celebrating the holiday.

You may be shocked to learn that this holiday is not even celebrated in most of Mexico, and is much more prominent in the United States.  Basically the only place in Mexico that celebrates it is the state of Puebla, who call it El Dia de la Batalla de Puebla, or The Day of the Battle of Puebla.  Why?  Because the holiday is literally just a celebration of an unlikely Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

So people are celebrating a fairly obscure battle that they almost certainly have never even heard of.

Somehow it started being celebrated here, then spread when people erroneously thought they were celebrating Mexican Independence Day, which is actually September 16th.  It turned into a general celebration of Mexican culture, which later just became a trendy drinking holiday.  And that is where we are at now.

So now you can tell all your dumb friends why they partying, and look smart.  Or better yet just don’t celebrate a holiday that means nothing to you just to be part of the trend!

Happy getting drunk for no reason!  Who needs a reason anyway?