Mexican Independence Day

Mexican Independence Day, celebrated annually on September 16th, commemorates the beginning of Mexico's war of independence from Spanish colonial rule, marked by the historic "Grito de Dolores," or "Cry of Dolores," delivered by Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla in the early morning hours of September 16, 1810. Hidalgo's impassioned call to arms from the small town of Dolores rallied indigenous people, mestizos, and criollos alike against Spanish colonial authority, igniting a rebellion that, though Hidalgo himself was captured and executed the following year, eventually grew into a prolonged eleven-year struggle culminating in Mexico's formal independence in 1821. Each year on the evening of September 15th, the President of Mexico reenacts the Grito from the balcony of the National Palace in Mexico City, ringing the same bell Hidalgo used to summon his followers and leading enormous crowds gathered in the capital's central square in shouts of "Viva Mexico" and other patriotic exclamations, a tradition replicated by officials in cities and towns throughout the country and in Mexican communities worldwide. The following day, September 16th, features large military parades, patriotic displays featuring the green, white, and red of the Mexican flag, traditional foods, mariachi music, and widespread community celebrations. Mexican Independence Day is often mistakenly conflated by some outside Mexico with Cinco de Mayo, a separate and considerably smaller commemorative holiday marking a military victory rather than independence itself.