Cinco de Mayo is the biggest day of the year for avocados

May 5, 2000 1:26 PM

Cinco de Mayo is the biggest day of the year for avocados -- it is a Mexican holiday, but a minor one. It marks a May 5, 1862, victory by a small army of Mexican patriots and peasants over stronger French forces, but it's not Mexican Independence Day -- a common misconception among Cinco de Mayo partyers in the United States. In the United States, it's become the Latin version of St. Patrick's Day -- largely because makers of beer, chips, salsa and tequila promote it heavily as a reason to party.
posted by palegirl (11 comments total)

The St Pat's comparison is a good one: as a Brit of Irish extraction, with plenty of Irish friends, I was amazed at how faux-Irish the celebrations were. (Dubliners normally hide away from the influx of Bostonians with their green food colouring.)

But then again, we didn't shift Mother's Day for the benefit of Hallmark ;)

Good Liz Phair song, though, is "Cinco de Mayo".
posted by holgate at 1:38 PM on May 5, 2000

Now that is a fine metafilter post.
posted by EngineBeak at 1:58 PM on May 5, 2000

it is.the page design on the cuervo site is laughable. especially at 1280x1024. maybe their designer was faschnookered, or however you spell it.
posted by bluishorange at 2:28 PM on May 5, 2000

Here's a conspiratorial thought... Have you noticed how the marketers have sequenced "beer holidays" every two months throughout the year? St. Pat's in March, Cinco de May, 4th of July, Labor Day, Halloween, then New Year's Eve (I know, it's a "champagne holiday" if you have any money...)
posted by wendell at 2:32 PM on May 5, 2000

now all they need to do is add 6 more and I'll be livin like I'm supposed to. What we need is a good President's day drink-off to get it started, then we can add in Father's day (cuz what Dad doesn't enjoy a tall, cold one?) and eventually the whole calander will be covered!
posted by chaz at 2:47 PM on May 5, 2000

In Britain, we've just had three truncated weeks in a row, because of the Good Friday, Easter Monday, and May Day bank holidays. It's led a journalist to suggest that we could keep to a four-day working week all year long.

Beer not included.
posted by holgate at 3:30 PM on May 5, 2000

I party on Cinco de Mayo because it's my birthday. So there.
posted by endquote at 11:00 PM on May 5, 2000

i party on cinco de mayo (this year) because it's on a friday

and i'm not allowed to post after four beers, either
posted by sugarfish at 11:57 PM on May 5, 2000

True. I'm from México, it's not a big holiday.

May 1st is "Día del Trabajo" like Labor day in the U.S. and the one day in May when nobody works. And it is the perfect excuse to have a "Puente" (bridge) when it falls on a Tuesday or Thursday, then it turns into a 4-day weekend.

I felt kinda funny when some friends called me to wish me a Happy Cinco de Mayo. Not celebrated like this at all in Aztec land. Some powerful imperialist forces were defeated by uderdog patriots. Great! back to work.

I like the excuse to have some tacos, cochinita pibil, horchata, tostadas, guacamole and *mucha salsa*.
posted by tremendo at 8:28 AM on May 6, 2000

BTW, the mexican government lists legal holidays here. 5 de mayo is not listed.
posted by tremendo at 9:41 AM on May 6, 2000

Cinco de Mayo is a trendy thing to celebrate now.. even here in Wisconsin, where we have only lilly white people who only eat white bread. I'm just waiting for Israeli Independence day to catch on -- but then again, falafel, pita, and hummus are not nearly as cool as tequila, beer, and salsa etc.. :)
posted by UWliberal at 12:16 PM on May 6, 2000