Residents of Mexico City and the surrounding state of Mexico on Tuesday celebrated Cinco de Mayo with re-enactments of the 1862 Battle of Puebla -- the origin of the holiday that celebrates Mexican culture, El Sol de México reported.

"Small cannons and muskets drive the French army back," the newspaper titled in allusion to the historic victory over the 6,000-strong attackers, which, according to the History Channel, "represented a great symbolic victory for the Mexican government and bolstered the resistance movement."

In Tlalmanalco, a town of about 45,000 in the far south-eastern part of Mexico state, some 350 residents climbed the Cerro de la Rumorosa early on Wednesday morning to re-enact a "heroic" battle, in which local forces under the command of Lt. Bernardino Orozco engaged French forces, El Sol de México detailed.

In Purísima del Rincón, located in the state of Guanajuato, about 250 miles northwest of the country's Federal District, schoolchildren led a ceremony during which residents celebrated the historic significance of Cinco de Mayo, according to AM.com

Tomás Torres Montañez, the mayor of the city of about 1.8 million, called on citizens to use the example of the Battle of Puebla as an inspiration to confront the challenges they and their country are facing today.

"United, we not only will have to defend Mexico from any threat," Torres Montañez said, "but we will also have to continue our fight to seek a sustainable future of peace, harmony, liberty, prosperity and justice."

While Cinco de Mayo is a popular holiday in Mexico, its significance is also closely related to the Latino community in the United States, the Richmond County (North Carolina) Daily Journal noted.

Jorge Reyes, who owns and operates the Mexicana Julie Tienda in Richmond, told the newspaper that the ceremony is a different experience south of the border, however.

"Here in the (United States), they don't do as much. In Mexico they have festivals, they will celebrate. And maybe only the big cities like Charlotte, they may do something," Reyes explained. "In Puebla ... they have a party, a big festival and battle re-enactments. It's like a fair, a day to remember the time the French attacked in Puebla. For Americans it has become mostly a drinking day."