On February 24, Mexicans celebrate "Dia de la Bandera," or Flag Day. Flag Day was founded in 1940 to commemorate the signing of the Plan de Iguala of 1821. On February 24, 1821, the war of independence officially ended and México was proclaimed an independent country. The Mexican flag is a symbol of Mexican independence. The Mexican flag consists of three equal vertical bands of green, white and red. The green stands for hope, the white for unity, purity and honesty, and the red represents parenthood and the blood shed by national heroes. Situated in the center of the white band is the

coat of arms: an eagle perched on a cactus, holding a snake in its beak. This part of the flag originates from an old Aztec legend. The Aztec people were told by their God, Huitzilopochtli, to found their city in a place where an eagle sat on a prickly-pear cactus, eating a snake. After hundreds of years of searching, the Aztecs finally found thier sign on a small island in lake Texcoco. They named their new home Tenochtitlan, which means "Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus," and built a city on this site in A.D. 1325. Today, this site is the center of México City.