Wait, it's NOT Mexican Independence Day?

Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo and my Spanish class is apparently going to do some fun little activities in honor of the day.

I don't know about you, but I really don't know anything about Cinco de Mayo... I know that it's the fifth of May, but the meaning of the date in Mexico's history is completely lost on me. When my teacher asked us in class if we knew what it was in honor of I quickly responded (in Hermione-like fashion) that it was in celebration of Mexican Independence-- I was wrong.

Since I had thoroughly humiliated myself in front of my classmates (which I guess isn't that big of a deal considering there are only seven other people in my class), I decided to do a little research on the topic:

I discovered that, despite popular belief, Cinco de Mayo is in fact not a celebration of independence, but the celebration of an unlikely Mexican victory over the French in the Battle of Pueblo in 1862. And that while in Mexico the celebration really is limited to the battle, in the United States it has become more of a celebration of Mexican pride and heritage. Apparently the first celebration of Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. was credited to some Mexicans in California sometime during the American Civil War. Crazy, right?

Actually... I don't find this extremely fascinating (mainly because History is my least favorite subject after math), but there is never a bad time to learn something new and I just hate answering questions wrong, so I had to learn more, so that when my teacher asks us about it tomorrow I will be able to answer her questions.

I promise I won't bore you with history lessons in the future unless I find them incredibly fascinating.

Have a nice Cinco de Mayo tomorrow!