Holidays

So, as I'm sure you're all aware, Cinco de Mayo was three days ago. Following the current trend of this celebratory day, I waited three days after it happened to say something about it as everyone is just probably now recovering.

Cinco de Mayo, or "Drinko de Mayo" as is the current trend (current as in the last decade or so) to call it, is a unique holiday in which the sole purpose of it in the United States is to get shit-faced drunk and participate in general tomfoolery. No other day serves this purpose... except Thanksgiving, The Fourth of July, Christmas, New Years, Easter, Veteran's Day, weekends, happy hour on weekdays... uh... where was I? Oh right, Cinco de Mayo.

The roots of this holiday have been forgotten. The average person doesn't know that Cinco de Mayo was the day that the Mexican army valiantly fought and defended their country against the French at Puebla. Most Americans don't know it was this French defeat that stopped the French supply of arms and ammunition to the confederate rebels in the United States, allowing the US army to essentially end the Civil War. They don't know that, in gratitude, the United States supplied Mexico the supplies they needed to expel their French attackers once and for all.

Instead, Americans view Cinco de Mayo as a day where Mexico supplies them Tecate in which to liberate themselves from their mundane lives. They see it as a day that isn't important in history at all, just an excuse to drink. Do we really need more excuses to drink? People drink for every celebration. They drink when they are happy and they drink when they are sad. They drink when someone is born, they drink when someone dies, they drink when someone gets married. They drink when they feel like it and some drink even when they don't feel like it.
I'm not particularly saying it's a horrible thing to drink on holidays, but people that use a holiday as an excuse to drink so much they are on the border of getting alcohol poisoning are the ones I'm pointing at. These people have no respect for the history that has made the world it is today, for better or worse.

What's next? Christsmash or Tanksgiving? Maybe even Good Friday? Unfortunately I can't think of a punny way to tie that into being drunk... but the crucifixtion of Jesus Christ? I can drink to that.

Cheers!

edit: it has been brought to my attention that I forgot St. Patrick's Day. I didn't so much forget it as assumed that it went without saying. Nitpicker.