Viva Mexico! Mexican Independence Day September 16th

El Grito: Mexican Independence Day

Circled around the bonfire during dinner

Playing a game , one of three that night

Circled in worship

Erin (being weird) with Gabriel, note that hat was the balloon that went into the fire...

Erin with Jarilyn (a volunteer at Door of Faith Orphanage)

Many of you may be asking yourselves, isn’t Mexican Independence Day have something to do with Cinco de Mayo? And I say no!



Tidbit of interesting information: the 5th of May is just a regional holiday celebrated by the State of Puebla commemorating a victorious battle that was unlikely to be won… (thank you Wikipedia) mostly though as an American you know about Cinco de Mayo and have never heard of the 16th of September as having any significance.



However, the 16th of September commemorates Mexico’s Independence from Spain.
We were invited to join in the celebration by our good friends from church. Miriam Galaviz, who I (Erin) work with at Siloe Community Clinic and her family, had the party at their house out in the courtyard. The party started at 9pm. Mostly the party was attended by people from Templo Elim church. We arrived and everyone was seated in a circle around a bonfire.

Our good friend Yolanda and her husband Jose just celebrated their 22nd wedding anniversary this past Sunday, and Chad and I were invited but decided not to go… When I approached Yolanda at the party, she crossed her arms at me and turned her head away and said that she waited for me but I never came, and she was sad. I felt bad, but luckily after the festivities of the evening, laughter, fellowship, and maybe as a result of my homemade chocolate chip cookies I won her over and we parted good friends.

We started with a few worship songs led by Pastor Gustavo. I felt so comfortable there, worshiping God in Spanish. I surprised myself a little, as I knew most of the songs by heart, which just made joining in the worship that much more meaningful. After worship ended, a few people shared some things they were grateful to God for or that God was teaching them.
After worship ended we gave El Grito, (woo-hoo!) the cry of Independence…which signifies a reenactment of how a leader of the Independence movement rang the bell of his church to call everyone to join in the war for independence against Spain…the war lasted 10 years.

Then we shared a meal together, Chad almost ate pig skin…luckily he asked our friend Helio what it was. We played a few games and had lots of laughter. One of my favorite games is a countdown game, where if you are left without a partner at the end you have to dance around as an electrified chicken. It’s hilarious.
We stayed until 1am, staying together to commemorate the start of the day of Independence (kind of like New Year’s Eve) and we threw a woven balloon hat (like a balloon animal) into the fire which gave off a series of celebratory pops.

Happy Independence Mexico!