This prayer was another opportunity to add depth to a holiday that many of our crew knew only as an excuse to drink beer, something that couldn’t be done underway on deployment anyway. It so happened that during one deployment, during COVID, it did not pass unobserved that Cinco de Mayo fell on Taco Tuesday, but was ruined by a virus with a name similar to a Mexican beer. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our tacos and marked the day as best we could.
If you’re like me and many other Americans you may have held, and maybe still hold, the mistaken belief that Cinco de Mayo has something to do with Mexican independence, something like a Mexican version of our 4th of July. Well, it doesn’t. Mexico celebrates its Independence Day on September 16th, commemorating the date in 1810 that Father Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla made the first cry for freedom from Spain. The May 5th date commemorates a battle that took place more than 50 years later.
The Battle of Puebla was fought when France—o whom the Mexican government was deeply in debt—sent an army to Mexico to expand its empire into the Western Hemisphere. Outside of what was then a small town called Puebla e los Angeles, 6000 professional French soldiers attacked 2000 Mexicans who were untrained and poorly equipped.
From morning until sunset the Mexicans continuously repulsed the assaulting French army until the invaders were forced by their losses to withdraw, leaving the Mexicans in possession of the field. Though it was not a major strategic victory, the battle of Puebla helped galvanize Mexican resistance to the French invasion in a war that would last an additional six years.
Though celebrated as a holiday in the modern Mexican state of Puebla, where the battle was fought, Cinco de Mayo isn’t really a big national celebration in Mexico. It may, in fact, be more widely celebrated in the U.S. where it has become a celebration of Mexican culture and heritage. I hope you all have a happy, healthy, and safe Cinco de Mayo.
LET US PRAY
Who is so great a God as our God?
You are the God who does wonders;
You have declared Your strength among the peoples.
You have with Your arm redeemed Your people,
The waters saw You, O God;
The waters saw You, they were afraid;
The depths also trembled.
The clouds poured out water;
The skies sent out a sound;
Your arrows also flashed about.
The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind;
The lightnings lit up the world;
The earth trembled and shook.
Your way was in the sea,
Your path in the great waters,
And Your footsteps were not known.
You led Your people like a flock. https://biblehub.com/nkjv/psalms/77.htm
AMEN
An Orthodox Priest Abroad 