Cinco de Mayo, always observed on May 5, falls on a Tuesday this year, so the celebration of Mexican heritage and culture starts this weekend in many cities, including in New Jersey.
Toms River hosts its Cinco De Mayo Festival downtown on May 2 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. Click here for details.
Also May 2 is the Highlands Fiesta De Mayo, meeting at Huddy Park for a cantina crawl at 12 p.m. Learn more here.
Other observances include:
Cinco de Mayo marks Mexico’s 1862 victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla, when an outnumbered Mexican army pulled off an unlikely win.
The date is often mistaken for Mexico’s Independence Day, which actually falls on Sept. 16 — decades after independence from Spain was secured.
While May 5 is an official holiday in Mexico, celebrations there are generally modest and largely centered in Puebla, where parades and ceremonies commemorate the battle. In contrast, the holiday has grown into a major cultural and commercial event in the United States.
Cinco de Mayo celebrations here date back to Mexican American communities in California in the years following the Battle of Puebla. The holiday spread nationwide during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and expanded further in the late 20th century, evolving into the widely observed — and often party-focused — occasion seen today.
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