Cinco de Mayo is a celebration with many misconceptions. The day is a show of Latino and Hispanic pride that takes place on May 5. That’s about all that is correct, however.

One such common misconception is that Cinco de Mayo is the Mexican Day of Independence, which is actually September 16^th.

“Cinco de Mayo is the holiday mistaken for Mexican Independence Day, but in reality is a battle they won against the French” Mrs. Brown said.

Another common misconception is that Cinco de Mayo is also celebrated in Mexico. Because the aforementioned battle was actually extremely insignificant (in terms of strategic importance; moral was a different story), Mexico doesn’t actually recognize Cinco de Mayo as a federal holiday. In fact, it is almost never celebrated outside of the town of Puebla, which is where the battle took place.

Cinco de Mayo was popularized by restaurants in the 1990s. Today, it is a holiday during which more Mexican food is consumed than on any other day in the US.