Viva Mexico! Happy Mexico Independence Day 🇲🇽

Happy Independence Day GG Mexico!

What is Mexican Independence Day?

Not to be confused with Cinco de Mayo, which commemorates the Mexican army's victory over the French forces of Napoleon III on May 5, 1862, at the Battle of Puebla, Mexican Independence Day marks September 16, 1810, the day when priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla urged Mexicans to rise up against the colonial government of Spain. The call today is often referred to as the Grito de Dolores, or Cry of Dolores, named after the town of Dolores—now Dolores Hidalgo—where the cry was originally uttered. (According to the Library of Congress, Hidalgo is believed to have said, "My Children, a new dispensation comes to us today…Will you free yourselves? Will you recover the lands stolen 300 years ago from your forefathers by the hated Spaniards? We must act at once.”) Independence was not won immediately, but that day—and its uprising—is typically considered the beginning of war that eventually brought the country independence in 1821.

How is it celebrated in Mexico?

Though September 16 is a day of full-blown festivities, celebrations of Mexican Independence Day actually begin at 11 p.m. on September 15, when Mexico’s president rings a bell at the National Palace in Mexico City and repeats Hidalgo's famous words, to crowds that have gathered at the Plaza de la Constitución, or Zócalo, one of the largest public plazas in the world. After each line, many of which tout key figures in the revolutionary, the spectators—an estimated more than 500,000 citizens and tourist—chant back, "¡Viva!" (This ritual is repeated in squares around the country.)

¡Mexicanos!
¡Vivan los héroes que nos dieron patria!
¡Viva Hidalgo!
¡Viva Morelos!
¡Viva Josefa Ortíz de Dominguez!
¡Viva Allende!
¡Vivan Aldama y Matamoros!
¡Viva la Independencia Nacional!
¡Viva México! ¡Viva México! ¡Viva México!

A few facts from the GG Mexico Team

Mexico's Bell of Independence:
The bell that the Mexican presidents ring at every yearly "Grito" is the very same bell rung by Miguel Hidalgo back in 1810. In 1896, the bell was moved from the church in Dolores (now known as Dolores Hidalgo), Guanajuato to the National Palace in the heart of Mexico City.

Miguel Hidalgo’s face didn’t look the way artists portray it nowadays:
Spaniards got rid of Miguel Hidalgo y Cotilla's portraits so painters had to create an image based on his brothers’ features. According to sources, Hidalgo y Costilla wasn’t bald or had gray hair, he was featured like that because when he was murdered part of his scalp was missing.