So, I went to that Cinco de Mayo celebration at the local ward building. It was everything I could have hoped for. Even totally obedient DW said, "Ugh. The food was disgusting!" Allmost people in attendance were homeless men and women who had at sometime in the recent path had joined the church, but never attended anything but activities where there was likely to be food. DW shakes her head over this "It seems that these are the only kind of converts we have in our ward now," she says. The two missionaries in attendance seemed to be right off the Andy Griffith show (ask your parents what that was). Sad.

I can't think of any ward activities in the last decade that I went to. My wife doesn't want to go. Sad affairs.

Not surprised, HAHA. I'm all down for cultural appropriation but sometimes it's harder than it looks.

Not everyone can copy like Joseph could. It's a gift.

Spent my first Cinco de Mayo in Mexico, and think it’s interesting how other than in Puebla, Mexicans don’t celebrate it.

It’s a United Statesian thing, mostly celebrating the defeat of the French because it meant we would have less competition with European powers in “our backyard” the Americas.

Pathetic, but true.

I don't think so. Cinco de Mayo springs not from Anglo communities but from Latino ones in the southwest of the United States.

Often ethnic minorities--and minorities of other sorts--feel the need to celebrate their cultures in a way that the people in the mother country do not. It's an affirmation of their communities in a place that generally ignores them.

Conversely, the number of white Americans who are aware of the French connection you describe is tiny.

The irony is that cinco de mayo is one of our two drinking holidays.

Dave the Atheist Wrote:
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> The irony is that cinco de mayo is one of our two
> drinking holidays.

The other drinking holiday being, of course, St. Patrick's Day, which was started by another U.S. minority group, the Irish.

Don't forget Oktoberfest!

But I'm unsure who started it and when it's celebrated...

Germans and all of October. It’s starts in September in some places.