Today begins the week-long celebration of Kwanzaa. Started by Maulana Karenga in the 1960’s. Kwanzaa is celebrated by many African-Americans today. It was started to give an alternative to Christmas and to celebrate the African-American history. Kwanzaa is often celebrated along with Christmas today among African-Americans. Kwanzaa celebrates seven principles which are Unity; Self-Determination; Work and Responsibility; Cooperative Economics; Purpose; Creativity; and Faith. Some of the things seen during Kwanzaa is a deocrative mat which has other symbols placed upon. A candle holder with seven candles called a Kinara. A communal cup and gifts and a poster of the seven principals with a black, red and green flag. Kwanzaa is celebrated often wearing colorful clothing; feasting on meals; and coming together with friends and family. This is one of the holidays this time of the year that people outside of the people celebrating find this holiday finds weird.
The pop culture of Kwanzaa is not as cooperative as Christmas is. Although it is getting better there still has been some attempts to make fun of this celebration. The best attempt is the TV show Futurama. They really had a good time making fun of Kwanzaa.
So let’s do the same thing that I talked about Hanukkah. This celebration is just like celebrating Christmas. We all have something special that we celebrate. Kwanzaa is celebrated within the black community and down here in the south it is taken seriously. So in a Young’s Blog salute Happy Kwanzaa; Happy Hanukkah; and Merry Christmas.
- Bring Out the Kwanzaa Kinara (slate.com)
- Kwanzaa Reading (rachelpollack.wordpress.com)
- Happy Kwanzaa! (goodolewoody.wordpress.com)
- Habari Gani? Kwanzaa begins (wtpdiaries.wordpress.com)
- The 7 Days of Kwanzaa (ankevents.wordpress.com)
- 10 Facts about Kwanzaa (tovah11.wordpress.com)
- Kwanzaa (summereadingame.wordpress.com)
- Umoja – Unity (living4bliss.wordpress.com)