Getting confused with my Mexican/Latin American holidays....

This morning I was struggling to get motivated; I broke one of my shops, I managed to do something wrong when trying to import blog posts into my Facebook business page. I was just generally 'urgh'. As I refreshed my browser for the 50th time in a minute, I saw a status update from one of my lovely friends:

'Happy Cinco de Mayo people! ¡Feliz Cinco de Mayo!'

It gave me the motivation to abandon stupid computer code and trying to find that illusive fabric that I didn't really need anyway.

Last night I was having a rummage in one of my fabric boxes and pulled out a couple of pieces that I fancied using, one of them was some pink Alexander Henry 'Sugar skulls' fabric. I bought it last year, made one bag and decided that I was going to use it as a make-up/random stuff bag for my handbag and didn't get around to making any more for my shop and made this...

When I bought the fabric I didn't really know what the sugar skulls were all about; it was just funky fabric but then I read 'The Red Shoes' by Joanne Harris and it gave a great description of the Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) which is a holiday that is celebrated by Latin Americans who gather to remember their family and friends who have died. The traditions include making sugar skulls and the favourite food of the dead.

This is where it all gets confused...or I get confused. I thought Dia de los Muertos and Cinco de Mayo were one in the same, hence me making the bag today but as I googled while eating my lunch, I saw that Cinco de Mayo is a holiday that celebrates the Mexican army's unexpected win over the French army in 1862 at the Battle of Peubla. Que?! But then if you look up 'Day of the Dead', it says that it is also known as Cinco de Mayo. Maybe there are two Cinco de Mayo's? Who knows? I do know that I need to get my hands on a copy of 'The Red Shoes' again. I think I sold my copy on Green Metropolis.....