Mexican Independence Day 2018
While Cinco de Mayo is commonly mistaken as Mexican Independence Day, the two are most certainly not the same. The holiday celebrates the Grito de Dolores (“the Cry of Dolores”), when a priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the bell of his church in the town of Dolores and delivered a speech on the morning of September 16, 1810, calling the Mexican people to arms against their Spanish rulers. Over a decade of war later, the territory known as New Spain achieved its independence as the Mexican Empire on September 28, 1821. Although it was the general Agustín de Iturbide who led the Mexican army to victory, Hidalgo is still considered to be Mexico’s Father of the Nation. Mexican Independence Day is marked by an assortment of parades, concerts, and other patriotic displays. On the eve of the holiday, the Mexican President always re-enacts the Grito by ringing the same bell Hidalgo rang from the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City.