Olé!

I’ll bet you didn’t know this, but Cinco de Mayo is one of my favorite holidays. No, it’s not because I have lots of Mexican friends and I respect their heritage. And no, it’s not because I love to throw back a good margarita every now and then. It’s because of the utter simplicity of the holiday’s name. I mean, who came up with the idea to name today Cinco de Mayo? All it means is the Fifth of May. But because it’s in Spanish, well, it sounds so much more festive.

I’ve been told that although today commemorates a Mexican military victory (over the French army), it is actually a minor civic holiday south of the border, and we Americans make a much bigger deal about it than the folks who should be celebrating. So in that line of thinking, I’d like to propose Septième Juin as a holiday. The exotic name just sounds exciting, doesn’t it? For those non-Francophiles out there, Septième Juin falls on the seventh of June. In my world it’s a very big and significant holiday, and quite similarly, I’ll be making a bigger deal about it than the people in France do. So there you go. Septième Juin is now an official holiday. Please mark your calendars. Who’s with me?