Cinco De-WHAT-O? Find Out What Cinco de Mayo Really Celebrates

So the weekend is here and you and your friends are all going to go out and celebrate Cinco de Mayo, right? Of COURSE! It's what everyone does on Cinco de Mayo weekends. Pub crawls, ordering your favorite drink by the name "cervesa" just to be cool, cramming down the chips and salsa. Fun word to say, isn't it? "Sallllsaaaa."

But why are you celebrating it? Why, especially, are you celebrating it if you have absolutely no "South of the Border" blood in you at all? Would you celebrate Buddha's Birthday as they do in Korea each May 17?  Let me guess: ONLY if there were partying and drinking involved, right?

Look, I have no problem at all with coming up with excuses to party. It's good for us to let our hair down, pull the collective sticks from our bottoms and relax, for whatever reason. I just think it's comical that statistically, most who celebrate Holidays like this one have no idea what it means. Sadly, many don't know what AMERICAN Holidays mean!

Cinco de Mayo is a celebration held on May 5. "Cinco," as in five, Mayo, as in "May," It is celebrated in the United States and regionally in Mexico, primarily in the state of Puebla, where the holiday is called El Día de la Batalla de Puebla (English: The Day of the Battle of Puebla). It originated with Mexican-American communities in the American West as a way to commemorate the cause of freedom and democracy during the first years of the American Civil War, and today the date is observed in the United States as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride.In the state of Puebla, the date is observed to commemorate the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, the most important national patriotic holiday in Mexico, which is celebrated on Sept. 16.

So, now you can feel better about drinking lots and lots of Mexican drinks and gorging yourself with too much Mexican food, as you now know the REAL reason for the Holiday.

Now then...who's getting toasted with their Mom for Mother's Day?