Cinco de Mayo: An Occasion to Celebrate and Ruminate
by dorothy smithLove of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?'
- Pablo Casals
Patriotism is dying a tantalizing death in the hands of time. It is not only where people are having to compromise with the basic requirements of living. In countries where people are provided with a comfortable standard of living, citizens rip off the government, its policies and the constitution to shreds at the first opportunity. Pseudo non-conformists yell the country down to anyone who has ears to listen. They do not know how to redress; they only know how to rant.
The patriotic celebrations which have lingered on are more a festive occasion than a patriotic one. Cinco de Mayo, Fourth of July, and Memorial Day are events celebrated by the people to recollect the days of our ancestors bravery. However, the people who are celebrating would no lift a finger to replicate the ideals they are glorifying. And that is a sad fact.
Cinco de Mayo is a festival of the Mexicans. It means '5th of May' in English. The Mexican army won a great victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla on 5th May, 1862.It is not their Independence Day but they celebrate this day with gusto because it is a victory their ancestors won over the much-fancied and superior French forces. Though the French took over Mexico a year later, it did not topple 5th May from the zenith of Mexican glory.
You need not be a Mexican to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Americans have adopted and adapted many events that does not owe their origins to American soil. Cinco de Mayo is one of them. The Mexicans may associate their sense of patriotism with the day but if you are not a Mexican, you can treat the day as just an occasion of celebration and merrymaking. Cinco de Mayo celebrations are all about getting yourself bathed in the colors of the Mexican flag – red, green and white. You can wear a sombrero, the traditional Mexican hat, and be out on the streets. You can also down some tequila shots to spice things up.
Occasions for merry-making cannot keep pace with the need of the modern man to celebrate. Everyone wants to take a day off and do something that does not translate into the language of profit or bottom lines. In a bid to gather as many reasons to celebrate as possible, people have blurred the lines of culture and ethnicity. They have no qualms in celebrating an occasion has not come down to them through the pages of history or folk lore. Cinco de Mayo is widely celebrated in the United States. There is no reason to have any hang-ups about celebrating a patriotic occasion of another country as long as you care as much for your own. Someone rightly said, 'A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won't cross the street to vote in a national election!"