On This Cinco (hol) de Mayo

[Sean Klein]

> Secondly...what the hell is this "Cinco de Mayo" stuff.  Before this year
> I'd never heard of such a thing but now I'm seeing all kinds of stores
> having Cinco de Mayo sales, it was mentioned on "King of the Hill" this
> past Sunday.  What is it (some kind of Latin American holiday?) and why
> the sudden surge in popularity?

Cinco de Mayo is a Mexican holiday celebrating it's independence over Spain, sometime during the 1800s.  It's Mexico's Fourth of July.  I believe, but I'm not sure, that it came at the end of a revolutionary war.

By the nature of your e-mail address - erie.net, I assume you're located somewhere in or east of Ohio.  Here in California, we have a large hispanic population, so everyone is very aware of Cinco de Mayo, whether or not we celebrate it.