It's Cinco de Mayo

Do non-Americans know about or celebrate Cinco de Mayo? I know that in the US it is just another big party day, but is it even that in the UK?

Also, it seems like UKers' idea of Mexico is likely to be a lot more exotic and foreign than USers'.

I'd never heard of it until this thread. There are few Mexican restaurants in the UK, let alone good ones, and nowhere that I know of where you can get a proper burrito. Maybe in London...

There is at least one decent Mexican in Bristol, although the Cuban/Chilean place that shut because of lack of trade was better.

To answer the question, I'd heard of it but know about as much about it as I know about President's Day or Labor Day i.e. nothing.

It commemorates an initial victory of Mexican forces led by General Ignacio Zaragoza Seguín over French forces in the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.

However, the Mexican victory at Puebla only delayed the French invasion of Mexico City, and a year later, the French occupied Mexico. The French occupying forces placed Maximilian I, Emperor of Mexico on the throne of Mexico; Maximillian and the French were eventually defeated and expelled in 1867, five years after the Battle of Puebla.

I always thought that Cinco de Mayo was a Mexican holiday, but apparently it is a bigger deal in the US than in Mexico as a whole. My mom is from Puebla, Puebla, where the battle took place, and my parents met at a Cinco de Mayo celebration, so I guess that's why I thought it was a bigger deal than it is.

The story I always got is that the farmers and women drove the French out of the city (this being the reason for celebration), but then the French returned the next day and there was a massacre (something that gets overlooked).