Five Cinco de Mayo Facts That Will Impress Your Friends

Can a holiday have an identity crisis? If so, that holiday is Cinco de Mayo. It does make sense that a holiday where swilling tequila is a preferred form of celebration would be misunderstood.

Here’s some good news to brighten your day as you think forward to Cinco de Mayo, 2023. The pandemic is behind us. This years Cinco de Mayo revelers don’t have to hope they live in a state where Insta Cart or Uber Eats can deliver their Tequila. This year there are lots of options. For the anti-social, still get the Tequila delivered. For the slightly social, go to the store to purchase the Tequila. For the truly social, go to a public celebration. This year the decision is ‘what to do with so many options?’

To take your mind off this dilemma, click the button below. Next, select your state and find the five best car insurance companies in your state.  Odds are, you haven’t heard of any of them.

There’s a reason you haven’t heard of these companies. They’re not marketing companies. No, they’re insurance companies. They don’t specialize in great advertisements. They specialize in protecting you, your family and your assets.

Cinco de Mayo Facts For You to Share

Now back the the important stuff. Here are five facts about Cinco de Mayo that will impress your friends, even if it’s a Zoom Social Hour.

1. Conventional wisdom is that Cinco de Mayo commemorates the Mexican Independence Day. Actually, Independence Day is September 16. Cinco de Mayo commemorates winning the battle of Puebla in the Franco-Mexican war of 1862.
2. Despite being significantly outnumbered, Mexico won the battle of Puebla. However, they lost the Franco-American war. After winning the war, the French occupied the region until the late 1860’s.
3. Cinco de Mayo is not a national holiday in Mexico. Other than the local area around where the battle took place in 1862, few celebrate the event.
4. Cinco de Mayo became popular in the U.S. as a result of the “Good Neighbor Policy.” This was a policy implemented by president Roosevelt in 1933 in an effort to improve relations with Latin countries. That’s brilliant. What better way to improve relations than to have a big party.
5. U.S. cities with the largest Cinco de Mayo parties are in the southern states. For example, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix.

Drinking and Fireworks Don’t Mix

Like other holidays, Cinco de Mayo includes consuming alcohol and shooting off fireworks. Here are a couple tips on precautions to take.

• For most people, Tequila isn’t a regular drink. Be careful. Tequila has a high alcohol content. Be sure to reduce the number of drinks you have as compared to beer or wine.
• Most important, if you’re celebrating the holiday, have a designated driver. If you’re not celebrating the holiday, still be extra cautious. Just because you’re sober doesn’t mean others on the road are also sober.

We’ve written in the past about the increased danger of traveling on holidays. Cinco de Mayo does not make it into the top ten for most dangerous holidays on the road. However, the only reason it’s not in the top ten is that fewer people celebrate. Those that do celebrate, don’t drink less because it’s a less popular holiday. Be extra cautious on May 5th.

What Are the Options?

According to the website onedui.com, the first driving under the influence charge typically costs around $10,000. This includes legal fees, fines, increased insurance costs, etc. $10K is a heavy incentive to stay of the DUI list this Cinco de Mayo.

One approach to increasing your odds of surviving the drunks leaving Cinco de Mayo parties is to travel during the daytime. This doesn’t reduce the risk to zero, but it substantially improves your odds.

Another defensive approach is to not drive a small vehicle. When there’s an impact, passengers in small vehicles will sustain more injuries. This is a simple matter of physics. A larger vehicle is able to absorb more of the impact form another vehicle.

Maximizing Your Holiday Fun With Fireworks

Fireworks are a blast. Yes, pun intended. They’re also dangerous. We won’t bore you with the details of the statistics. Instead, here are four key points to remember.

1. Put a woman in charge
2. Make sure she’s older than 24
3. Keep children and young adults away (particularly children five and under and young adults 20 to 24)
4. Read the instructions

For more details on why to take these safety precautions read our blog “4 Tips for Homeowners on the 4th of July.” If you don’t want to read that, it’s okay. However, be sure to follow this sage advice. We didn’t make this up. This is based on an analysis of accident statistics published by the Consumer Product Safety Divisions Annual Report on Fireworks.

How Good is Your Insurance?

Be sure to checkout your car and home insurance companies. Now you can actually know how good they are before something happens, like a drunk driver hitting your car or a fireworks rocket being accidentally shot through a neighbors window. Do it now, because you don’t want to find out after it’s too late that your insurance isn’t good.

Note: ValChoice does not receive compensation from insurance companies for rating their performance in our car and home insurance reports.