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What to know about Cinco de Mayo 2025, and where the holiday came from

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This Monday is Cinco de Mayo – a holiday that commemorates a Mexican military victory but has become better known as a celebration of Mexican culture in the United States.

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But what does the day actually celebrate, and how will this year’s festivities be different? Here’s what to know.

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What are the origins of Cinco de Mayo?

Though it’s often confused with Mexican Independence Day, Cinco de Mayo marks the victory of a poorly armed group of Mexican forces over the French at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

Upon hearing of the victory, Mexican American miners in Columbia, California, are believed to have fired shots into the air in what some historians cite as the first Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Despite the Mexican victory at Puebla, it was several more years before France – whose leader Napoleon III had sent between 8,000 and 10,000 troops to Mexico as part of an effort to create a French empire in Latin America – left the country.

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Celebration styles have shifted over the decades – tinged by immigrant nostalgia in the 1930s and becoming more commercially focused in the 1980s and 1990s – according to David E. Hayes-Bautista, an academic and author of a book on the celebration. But the holiday remains a chance for Mexican Americans to celebrate their culture and identity.

How is Cinco de Mayo celebrated in Mexico?

While Cinco de Mayo is a popular celebration in the United States, it’s not a national holiday in Mexico. The city of Puebla holds a parade and reenactment of the battle, but large celebrations aren’t common elsewhere.

“To this day, we see the celebration of Cinco de Mayo occur in a much more widespread fashion in the U.S. than we even see in Mexico,” Alexander Aviña, associate professor of Latin American history at Arizona State University, told The Post last year.

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When is Mexican Independence Day?

Mexico’s Independence Day is distinct from Cinco de Mayo and is celebrated on Sept. 16.

It marks the day in 1810 – more than half a century before the Battle of Puebla – when a Catholic priest named Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla made a famous speech in what is now Dolores Hidalgo, Mexico, calling for a revolution against the Spanish, known as the “Grito de Dolores” (Cry of Dolores).

Mexico gained independence from Spain 11 years later.

How will Cinco de Mayo be celebrated this year?

Cinco de Mayo in the U.S. has come to be known as a day to celebrate Mexican culture, food and identity, with a number of restaurants and bars offering deals and theme nights. Civic organizations are hosting cultural celebrations around the country, with parades and floats, as well as events for children, like pinata-making classes, throughout the weekend leading up to May 5.

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Some cities kicked off their Cinco de Mayo celebrations last weekend, as Los Angeles did with its Fiesta Broadway music festival. Denver’s Cinco de Mayo Festival began on Friday while the D.C. area will be hosting a number of events over the weekend, including the 13th Annual Running of the Chihuahuas, which helps raise funds for Rural Dog Rescue, and Shipgarten’s Cinco de Mayo Festival on Saturday.

As awareness of the holiday has grown, so has marketing around it, Aviña told The Post. “Companies really strived to turn this day into a commercial opportunity, and they’ve succeeded,” Aviña said. “Now, it’s gone mainstream.”

This year, many events across the country are sponsored by brands linked to Mexico. Louisiana’s Cinco de Mayo Fest is sponsored by Modelo Beer and Herradura Tequila, while the Cinco de Mayo Fiesta in Portland, Oregon, is sponsored by Cuervo and Victorico’s Mexican Food.

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How is Trump’s immigration crackdown affecting the holiday?

This year, the deportation blitz that President Donald Trump promised during his campaign has sent waves of unease through immigrant communities, as officers conducted raids across the country, arresting up to 1,179 people a day in late January. More than a dozen U.S. citizens have been swept up in the crackdown, with the true scope unknown because the federal government does not release data on how often U.S. citizens are wrongfully detained or removed from the country.

The charged environment has led some communities to cancel celebrations, including the annual Cinco de Mayo parade in Chicago. Cermak Road Chamber of Commerce President Hector Escobar said in a statement to CBS News that “our community is very frightened because of the raids and the threat that ICE has imposed on the families that work tirelessly to provide a better future for their kids.” Escobar added that people in the community have “faced bullying and prosecution and are not indulging in community activities, therefore we feel that there is nothing to celebrate.”

Last month, organizers in Philadelphia canceled the annual celebration of Mexican culture Carnaval de Puebla, amid fears of an ICE raid. “People don’t want to participate because of what’s going on,” organizer Olga Renteria told the Philadelphia Inquirer in April. “People worry if they show up for the carnaval and ICE is waiting for them.”

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