Vahana’s Holiday Haven |

The Mexican holiday of Cinco de Mayo is held each year on the fifth of May to celebrate the Mexico’s win over the French at the Battle of Puebla in the year 1862. Many people, especially Americans, assume that Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexico’s independence; however, the true Mexican Independence Day Holiday is on September 16th.

The Battle of Puebla is a battle which brought great national pride to the Mexican people because their small, poorly armed army of about 4,500 men was able to completely stop a French army, nearly twice their size, from invading Mexico. The victory showed the Mexican people what they could accomplish as a nation and spurred national pride and unity.

Cinco de Mayo is a national holiday in the country of Mexico, but the largest celebration is held in the state capital of Puebla where the battle took place. In addition, the largest Cinco de Mayo celebration in the world is actually held outside of Mexico in the Los Angeles area of California. The next two largest Cinco de Mayo celebrations take place each year in Denver, Colorado, and in St. Paul, Minnesota. Each of these three large events draws hundreds of thousands of participants each and every year.

Thanksgiving is a holiday each year where your family can really start some great family traditions. Often families tend to get into a rut after a while, and adding some new and interesting family traditions to the Thanksgiving celebration can really liven things up and give people something to look forward to all year.

Thanksgiving is a time to give thanks for those people we treasure in our lives and those things we have been blessed with over the past year. A nice tradition to start is having everyone present at your Thanksgiving gathering go around the room and tell what they are thankful for in their lives. In addition to what they are thankful for, you can add on the tradition of also saying something nice about each person in the room.

Another great family tradition is to have a white linen tablecloth on a different table than the one used for serving food, so that it does not become stained. Before or after the meal, hand out a black permanent marker to each person and ask them to write something on the cloth and sign their name and date it. You can then use the same cloth each year and have people continuing to add their information on it, or you can use a different cloth each year, maybe a smaller one, and have someone in the family turn them into stitchery or even a quilt.

St. Patrick’s Day is a holiday which celebrates Saint Patrick. Saint Patrick was one of the patron saints of Ireland credited with spreading the Catholic religion to many areas of Ireland. St. Patrick’s Day takes place on the 17th day of March each year, which is the day which Saint Patrick died.

St. Patrick’s Day is a national holiday in Ireland with many businesses being closed on the day. In other parts of the world, especially the US and Canada, it is widely celebrated but is not an official government holiday.

St. Patrick’s Day is a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. Interestingly enough, occasionally the church authorities move the date of the holiday because of its clash with other holy days. In 2008 this is the case, and it shall be moved to March 15th to avoid Holy Monday.

President’s Day is a United States federal holiday and is celebrated on the third Monday in February. The President’s Day holiday was originally to honor President George Washington and was known as “Washington’s Birthday”; however, it was renamed in the late 1980s to celebrate both Presidents Washington and Lincoln. The day is now simply referred to as President’s Day. It is common to find banks and government offices closed on the President’s Day holiday; however, most retail stores are open on the day, and many have special sales which happen on that day each year.

Because the celebration of President’s Day is all about leadership and celebrating the special men who have led our country over the past two hundred plus years, I have gathered together some of my favorite US President leadership quotes. They are listed below for you to read and think about this President’s Day.
1. “As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” - John F. Kennedy