普埃布拉天主堂和波波卡特佩特火山，普埃布拉，墨西哥 Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios and Popocatépetl, Puebla, Mexico (© Radius Images/Shutterstock)

普埃布拉天主堂和波波卡特佩特火山，普埃布拉，墨西哥 Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios and Popocatépetl, Puebla, Mexico (© Radius Images/Shutterstock)

从胜利到欢庆 From victory to festivity

普埃布拉，墨西哥

与许多人的看法相反，5月5日并不是墨西哥的独立日。
真正的墨西哥独立日是在每年的9月16日庆祝。
而5月5日是为了庆祝在1862年的这一天墨西哥在普埃布拉战役中战胜法兰西帝国。虽然这一天是为了纪念一个重大的历史事件，但墨西哥的庆祝活动相对平静，主要集中在普埃布拉。

在墨西哥，这一天被称为“普埃布拉战役日”，因为当时的墨西哥总统贝尼托·巴勃罗·胡亚雷斯·加尔卡
(Benito Pablo Juárez Garca) 于 1862
年宣布这一节日为国定假日。今天，普埃布拉人民通过游行、演讲和战斗重演来庆祝。图中的 普埃布拉天主堂又称济世圣母教堂(Nuestra Señora
de los Remedios )在普埃布拉战役爆发时已经有将近 300 年的历史。

Cinco de Mayo

Contrary to what many people believe, Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's Independence Day, which is celebrated on September 16. Instead, May 5 marks Mexico's victory over better-equipped French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. Although the French Empire would counterattack and take the city a year later, the unexpected victory was a morale boost which still has symbolic significance. While in the US, Cinco de Mayo is a popular festival celebrating Mexican American culture, celebrations in Mexico are relatively quiet and focused mostly on Puebla.

In Mexico, the celebration became known as Battle of Puebla Day after President Benito Juárez declared it a national holiday in 1862. Today, the people of Puebla celebrate with parades, speeches, and battle reenactments. The Church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios in Puebla, pictured here, was already nearly 300 years old when the 1862 battle was fought. And human history is just the blink of an eye to ancient Popocatépetl, the smoking volcano which towers over Puebla in the background of our homepage image.