Kwanzaa 
Welcome to our Kwanzaa Page. 

Kwanzaa (or Kwaanza) is a week-long secular holiday celebrating African-American heritage. This holiday is observed in the U.S. almost exclusively by African-Americans each year from December 26 to January 1.

Kwanzaa consists of seven festival days, each featuring activities such as candle-lighting and the pouring of libations. That phrase, "pouring libations," means to pour a drink as an offering to a god or gods. Kwanzaa ends with a feast and gift-giving. The holiday originated with black-nationalist Ron "Maulana" Karenga and was first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967. 

Creation of Kwanzaa

Ron Karenga, a political activist, created Kwanzaa in California in 1966, during his leadership of the black nationalist United Slaves Organization (also known as the "US Organization"). Karenga's motivation was to give African Americans an alternative holiday to Christmas. He later stated, "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." 

The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruits." The choice of Swahili, an East African language, reflects its status as a symbol of Pan-Africanism, especially in the 1960's, even though most African-Americans are of West African ancestry.

An additional "a" was added to "Kwanza" so that the word would total seven letters. At that time, there were seven children in Karenga's United Slaves Organization and each wanted to represent one of the letters in Kwanzaa. Also, the name was designed to have one letter for each of what Karenga called the "Seven Principles of Blackness." Kwanzaa is also sometimes spelled "kwanza."

Kwanzaa has its roots in the 1960s civil rights era. It was established to help African Americans reconnect with what Karenga characterized as their African cultural and historical heritage. This reconnection could take place, Karenga believed, when African Americans united in meditation and study around principles with origins in what Karenga asserts are "African traditions" and "common humanist principles."

In 1967, the year after Karenga proposed this new holiday, he publicly espoused the view that "Jesus was psychotic" and that Christianity was a white religion that blacks should shun. However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so as not to alienate practicing Christians. In 1997's Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, Karenga insisted that "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday." 

Principles of Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called "The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa," or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba). Karenga claimed this to be " a communitarian African philosophy" consisting of his own distillation of "the best of African thought and practice in constant exchange with the world." These are the seven principles that comprise Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition and reason that Karenga used to refer to his synthesized system of belief. Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the following principles, which are explained by Karenga as follows:

Umoja (Unity) To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility) To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our own problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics) To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose) To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity) To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than when we inherited it.
Imani (Faith) To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

These seven Kwanzaa principles correspond to Karenga's notion that "the seven-fold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black." 

Observance

Families celebrating Kwanzaa decorate their households with art objects, colorful African cloth, particularly the Uwole, an article of clothing, usually brightly colored and worn by women in equatorial Africa, and fresh fruits that represent African idealism. It is customary to include children in Kwanzaa ceremonies and to pay respect and give gratitude to ancestors. Libations are shared, generally with a common chalice, "Kikombe cha Umoja," passed around to all celebrants.

A model Kwanzaa ceremony is one that includes drumming and musical selections, libations, a reading of the "African Pledge" and the Principles of Blackness, reflections on the Pan-African colors, a discussion of the African principle of the day or a chapter in African history, a candle-lighting ritual, artistic performance, and, finally, a feast. The greeting for each day of Kwanzaa is "Habari Gani," which is Swahili for "What's the News?" 

At first, observers of Kwanzaa eschewed the mixing of the holiday or its symbols, values and practice with other holidays. They felt that doing so would violate the principle of kujichagulia (self-determination) and thus violate the integrity of the holiday, one that is at least partially intended to reclaim important African values. Today, many African-American families celebrate Kwanzaa along with Christmas and New Year's. Frequently, both Christmas trees and kinaras, the traditional candle holder symbolic of African-American roots, share space in households that celebrate Kwanzaa. To these families, Kwanzaa is an opportunity to incorporate elements of their ethnic heritage into holiday observances and Christmas celebrations.

Popularity
It is unclear how many people celebrate the holiday. According to a marketing survey conducted by the National Retail Foundation in 2004, Kwanzaa is celebrated by 1.6% of all Americans, or about 4.7 million people. In a 2003 interview, Karenga asserted that 28 million people celebrate Kwanzaa.

In President George W. Bush's 2004 presidential message, as he had in several previous messages, Bush said that during Kwanzaa, "millions of African Americans and people of African descent gather to celebrate their heritage and ancestry."

Evolution in the observance of Kwanzaa

In 1977's Kwanzaa: Origin, Concepts, Practice, Karenga stated that Kwanzaa "was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."

However, Karenga later changed his position, stating in 1997 that while Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday, it can be celebrated by people of any race, that "other people can and do celebrate it, just like other people participate in Cinco de Mayo besides Mexicans; Chinese New Year besides Chinese; Native American powwows besides Native Americans."

Currently, according to the Official Kwanzaa Website authored by Karenga and maintained by Organization US, which Karenga chairs, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday. And it is not an alternative to people's religion or faith but a common ground of African culture...Kwanzaa is not a reaction or substitute for anything. In fact, it offers a clear and self-conscious option, opportunity and chance to make a proactive choice, a self-affirming and positive choice as distinct from a reactive one."

Karenga's most recent interpretation emphasizes that while every people have their various holiday traditions, all people can share in the celebration of our common humanity. Karenga has said: "Any particular message that is good for a particular people, if it is human in its content and ethical in its grounding, speaks not just to that people, it speaks to the world." 

Controversy

There has been criticism of Kwanzaa's authenticity and relevance, and of the motivations of its founder, Karenga. The origins of Kwanzaa are not secret, and are openly acknowledged by those promoting the holiday.

Some criticize Kwanzaa because it is not a traditional holiday of African people, and because of its recent provenance, having been invented in 1966. Black civil rights activist Reverend Jesse Lee Peterson wrote, "...the whole holiday is made up! You won't find its roots in Africa or anywhere else."

Some are concerned that Christians who choose to celebrate Kwanzaa are diluting their love for Christ. In contrast, the African American Cultural Center considers Kwanzaa not a religious holiday, but a cultural one which does not require people to compromise their religious beliefs.

William Norman Grigg noted that the seven-branch candle holder, the "Kinara," was not used in African traditions, and suggested that a symbol of Judaism was borrowed to match the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Although Kwanzaa is indeed a new holiday, created for political and cultural purposes, this does not detract from its meaning. All holidays were once new. All holidays were probably once questioned and doubted by somebody. As the years go by, the skepticism around some holidays fades, making way for those holidays to gain strength and celebrants. However, for other holidays, the doubts may increase over time. Either way, the holidays typically remain with us. 

This is not true of all holidays, however. For instance, Washington's birthday is no longer a holiday today in the U.S., having been combined with Lincoln's birthday (both are in February) to together comprise Presidents' Day. Like the old saying that the only constant is change, American holidays, too, all continue to evolve.

This page is based on a page from Wikipedia entitled Kwanzaa. You can find the page at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwanzaa. Wikipedia is open source. That means anyone is free to use it and alter it as long as they credit the source. Wikipedia is not copyright, it is leftright. The Kwanzaa related text on this page is also leftright. You are free to use it as you like as long as you credit Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia for our authorship. This means that if you want to use this, you must include a statement crediting us and provide links to Aaron Teaches and Wikipedia.