May 5th 2012 Cinco de Mayo

Travelling In Indian Trains


Forever astounded by the Georgian National Ballet, Sukhishvilli.

More exuberant Sukhishvili rehearsals. What vitality! That beat. I think it's live music too.

More Sukhishvilli.
Can't get enough of Sukhishvilli and enjoy watching them rehearsing more than on stage

And, when they are on stage

Inception door

Framed slides of Pantone swatches, laminated glass, wood frame | H 210cm, W 84cm

Tibetan anatomical/medical chart

Tibetan anatomical/medical chart

Life goes on

No, not good, Apple. How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes

A type of acrobatics I didn't know about. The German wheel.


Cinco de Mayo

Inspiring and awesome. People who are 100 years old. 



From ZenPencils, words by Carl Sagan put into cartoon form via mathowie on MetaFilter

Window Surprise

Huh. I always wondered why the word weasel was used the way it is. Treacherously tricky.
How a weasel hunts

made of paperclips

Extraordinary photographs of dogs under water by Seth Casteel

Cinco de Mayo is Not Mexican Independence Day?

May 5th, 2011 by Kelly Buchanan

The following is a guest post by Francisco Macías, Senior Legal Information Analyst.  Francisco has previously written about the fascinating history of the Mexican Constitution for In Custodia Legis.

No, May 5^th is not Mexican Independence Day.  Mexico’s independence is celebrated on September 16th and shouldn’t be confused with the holiday of May 5th.   The celebration of “Cinco de Mayo” commemorates the “Battle of Puebla” (May 5, 1862).  In this battle, Mexican forces led by Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín (from what is now the city of Goliad, Texas, which was then once the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas), against all odds, defeated the French intervention forces of Napoleon III (led by Charles Lorencez) and forced them to retreat.  This was not the end of the French intervention in Mexico.  In fact, after this battle, additional French forces were sent to Mexico; and Mexico City and the state of Puebla were captured by the French.  Maximilian of Habsburg then became Emperor of Mexico during the Mexico’s Second Imperial period.

Many Americans — particularly college students around say age 21 — tend to celebrate this Mexican holiday by imbibing Mexican beer and tequila, the Mexican spirit, and even donning sombreros, without really considering what the holiday represents.

The reality is that the Cinco de Mayo holiday is probably more celebrated in the U.S. than in Mexico.  In fact, on more than one occasion, I was in my birth town in the state of Tamaulipas on May 5th and there wasn’t even so much as a mention of the holiday.  Furthermore, Article 74 of the Mexican Labor Law indicates which days are to be non-working days, and May 5^th is not one of them.  (Although, government employees of Mexico are off on that day, but that is due to other provisions, and even in these cases the Battle of Puebla appears merely as a footnote.)

For those of you who are curious as to how the holiday became such a significant part of American celebrations, in 2007 an interesting treatise was written that traces some of the history of the holiday’s celebration in the U.S. and some of the implications of this.

The holiday has been marked numerous times by the U.S. Congress.  In the 110th and 111th Congresses, the House of Representatives passed resolutions that were introduced under the title “Recognizing the historical significance of the Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo.”  The Senate also passed a resolution in the 111th Congress with the same title.