Every November 12, Mexico marks Día del Cartero — Postman's Day — a small annual tradition where households show appreciation for the people who bring letters and parcels to their door. If you're staying in Mexico around this date, you might spot a postman collecting small printed envelopes left in letterboxes, each holding a cash tip from grateful residents.

The holiday has deep roots. The Spanish word for post, correo, comes from the verb 'to run' — a nod to the message runners who first carried communications across Mesoamerica. Under the Aztecs, relay towers stood roughly every ten kilometres along major routes, letting couriers pass written messages hand to hand. Legend even claims Emperor Moctezuma enjoyed fresh fish from the Veracruz coast thanks to this relay system. Horses arrived with the Spanish colonial era and took over from the runners.

Mexico formalised things in 1813 with its first postal service, running monthly deliveries between Mexico City and the provinces. The Treasury took the system over in 1824, issuing the country's first postage stamp bearing independence hero Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla. Post boxes appeared in cities under Emperor Maximilian, and in 1910 Porfirio Díaz commissioned the Palacio de Correos — a grand main post office in downtown Mexico City that's still operating today and worth a look if you're passing through the historic centre. Día del Cartero itself dates to 1931, and in 1947 the post office issued a commemorative stamp honouring delivery workers as 'Anonymous Hero'.

Fast forward to now and the picture has changed. Email gutted the letter business, but Mexico's online shopping boom has created a new army of parcel couriers — DHL, FedEx, homegrown leader Estafeta, Amazon's own delivery network, plus gig apps like Uber, Didi and Rappi. The 'last mile' is still done by postmen and increasingly postwomen on foot, bike and, most often, motorbike.

For travellers and expats living in Mexico, the etiquette is simple. A small cash tip for your regular postie is customary — around 50 pesos is perfectly fine, double that if you receive lots of snail mail. Couriers don't expect tips per delivery, but a little something in November or at Christmas for the ones you see regularly is a welcome gesture. For food and small-item deliveries through apps, tipping each time is the norm. It's a modest cost that acknowledges real daily graft — and a nice window into Mexican everyday culture that most guidebooks skip.

Story via Mexperience.