Find Out Why We Really Celebrate Cinco de Mayo

So why are you celebrating it? Why, especially, are you celebrating it if you have absolutely no Mexican blood in you at all?

Look, I have no problem at all with coming up with excuses to party. It's good for us to let our hair down and relax. I just think it's comical that statistically, most who celebrate holidays like this one have no idea what it means.

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.