Cinco De Mayo
May. 5th, 2008 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amanda_loddenAt lunch today, the woman behind us was rather loudly explaining to one of her companions (who was apparently from Turkey) that today was Cinco De Mayo, and explaining that it's Spanish for May 5th. She then explained that it's a "Spanish holiday" in which everyone "just drinks and drinks" because they like the number five so much, and it's the fifth day of the fifth month and all that.
....
[sarcasm] Yes, of course that's it. They have minor holidays on the 5th of every month, and it's a week-long alcohol-fest in the years that May 5th falls on the fifth day of the week.[/sarcasm]
I realize that we have the Ugly American standard to uphold and all, but is it so much to ask that we pay just a little bit of attention to the holidays of other nations if we decide to participate in the drinking with them? I'd have been perfectly okay with her tossing out anything at all pertaining to the Mexican Revolution, even though that was in September and not actually involved in Cinco De Mayo (5/5 commemorates a particular battle, and it's really only important in a particular state; Americans celebrate it more than Mexicans do).
....
[sarcasm] Yes, of course that's it. They have minor holidays on the 5th of every month, and it's a week-long alcohol-fest in the years that May 5th falls on the fifth day of the week.[/sarcasm]
I realize that we have the Ugly American standard to uphold and all, but is it so much to ask that we pay just a little bit of attention to the holidays of other nations if we decide to participate in the drinking with them? I'd have been perfectly okay with her tossing out anything at all pertaining to the Mexican Revolution, even though that was in September and not actually involved in Cinco De Mayo (5/5 commemorates a particular battle, and it's really only important in a particular state; Americans celebrate it more than Mexicans do).
