Mexico Facts
Mexico sure is an interesting country so read on to find out things you might not know!
Mexico is bordered to the north by the United States and to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean.
To the southeast are Guatemala, Belize and the Caribbean Sea; and to the east is the Gulf of Mexico.
Can you just imagine this? On Valentine’s Day in 2009, nearly 40,000 people went into a kissing area in Mexico City to break the Guinness World Record for the number of people kissing at the same time for the count of 10 seconds.
Hmmm, don’t know if we would want to participate in that competition!
They beat the world record which was held by Britain with 32,648 people in 2007. So they made it!
But why did they do it? They did it to show that love and respect was the most important thing and to make a stand against some of the violence that was happening in their country, where lots of people had died.
Okay now that we know this, we would definitely take part!
Apparently the mayor also wanted to ban kissing in the town square, so they were showing him too what they thought about that idea! Wow, that was quite some kissing contest.
Michael Jackson and the Mexicans
Now this is even funnier. Have you heard of the late, great Michael Jackson? Well also in 2007 the Mexicans decided on trying to grab hold of another world record.
This time they had the most people dancing all at the same time to Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’. There were 13,597 people. That is a lot of people all dancing at the same time, don’t you think?
Mexico City is sinking!
This is a bit scary. Mexico City is one of the largest cities in the world, and it’s actually sinking. No way.
Some people believe that it’s sinking between 0.2 to 1.3 feet (6 centimeters to 40 centimeters) every single year. It has sunk 32.8 feet (10 meters) in the past 60 years. Wow! Hope they’re all safe there.
The Aztecs
Way back in 1325 the Aztecs decided to build the city in the middle of a lake in a volcanic crater. All went to plan until the Spaniards took over in 1519.
They drained the lake and built on that very same lake bed. They sunk deep wells to pump the water from boreholes below.
Obviously you need heaps of water to keep a busy city going.
Approximately 70% of the water comes from the boreholes, but they’re using more than they have, so it’s not being replaced as quickly as it is being used.
Because of this, the ground is really weak and the city really is sinking.
There is an old fable in Mexico that if a pregnant Mom walks outside when the moon is in a lunar eclipse, then her baby might be born part wolf.
How weird would that be! If she has to be outside then, she has to tie some keys round her tummy so that the light reflects and then all will be well with her baby.
A lunar eclipse is when the moon looks dark as it passes into the earth’s shadow.
Now can you just imagine this? Every year before Christmas since 23rd December 1897 a city in Mexico called Oaxaca started celebrating ‘The Night of the Radishes’.
Now this just seems unbelievable. As you might know a radish is a little red vegetable that is often put in salads.
But these radishes are no ordinary radishes, they can weigh up to 6.61pounds (3 kilograms) and grow up to 20 inches (50 centimeters long.
Wow, those are some seriously big radishes. They are especially grown for the festival by radish growers who then carve them into all sorts of shapes like buildings, nativity scenes, people or saints.
Thousands of people flock to go and see these, well, radishes! Perhaps you can put that onto your travel to do list!
The Mayan People
Between 2600 BC and 1800 BC the Mayan people began to settle in what is now called Mexico.
By 300 AD, the Mayan people had many kings of states with names like Smoke-Jaguar and Eighteen Rabbits. It was called the Classic period and their armies were very strong.
Their soldiers carried the usual knives and spears, bows and arrows but they became famous and very skillful at throwing nests of hornets at the enemy to make them panic and run. These were called Hornet Bombs.
Can you imagine having a hornet bomb thrown at you, there would definitely be some fast running happening there!
So there are some of our weird and wonderful facts on Mexico. Did you know any of these? Have you got others to share? We’d love to hear them!
