[KarynB]

Hi all,

I was wondering if any of you celebrate Kwanzaa, and if so - how exactly do you celebrate? I would really like to incorporate this holiday into our family, it really speaks to me and seems like a beautiful tradition.

Do you know of any good resources (kids book, adult books) on the tradition? Thanks!

Karyn

[Sohmakun]

I don't now and I don't think I ever will. Kwanzaa is an African holiday (someone please correct me if I'm wrong) and I'm not African but African-American. A lot of transracial adoptive parents have asked me if celebrating Kawanzaa is important for their AA children and I personally don't think so. I know more AAs who celebrate Christmas more than Kwanzaa.

[sbaglio]

Kwanzaa is actually a holiday that was created by an African-American, so it's not African in origin, per se (I'm African). It incorporates "African traditions" (even though these are extremely diverse). Sorry, Karyn, I don't know celebrate it and don't know too much more about it.

[spicedmama]

Yes, it's an original African American holiday that many African Americans do not celebrate. I checked a book out of the library a couple of times to see if I understood exactly what it incorporated. I must admit, I still don't fully get it. I like the Virgin Birth, and Santa for my family.

[aclee]

It is an AA holiday that focuses on many positive aspects by the following of 7 principles.


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 brother's and sister's problems our 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 we inherited it.

Imani (Faith) To believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.

My sister teaches it to her 1st grade class along with the teaching of all the other holidays. She really wants us to celebrate with Ty, and her family would join us.

[loveajax]

I also don't know any black people who celebrate Kwanzaa.

I did see an article on TRA ....two very nice Jewish parents who were parenting black kids in Boston and started to celebrate Kwanzaa....the kids were "embarassed" by this. I'm not saying it's anything to be "embarassed" about but I think they said it was a "bit much" for them. I do think about the traditions that DD would have if she were being raised by her birth family and I know that they celebrate Christmas.

If you decide to celebrate, I hope you find some good resources (I assume online or at the library would help?).

[KarynB]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. I actually started thinking about it again because my son goes to a Saturday school in our city that is for people of African and/or Caribbean descent, and they do a huge celebration each year. So - some people here do celebrate it. Here is a bit of info I found today.

It was created by an African American but with the idea of Pan-Africanism. Our son is African, and not African American, so I'm not really worried if many AA's celebrate it per say...although in my reaserch I've found over 18 million celebrate it worldwide.

Here is a bit of basic background info:

"Kwanzaa is a seven-day holiday celebrated each year from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.

Kwanzaa - Swahili for "first fruits" or "first fruits of the
harvest" - is a celebration of African-American heritage, community, family, and culture based on the rituals of African harvest festivals.

Kwanzaa is unique because it is a holiday with no religious, political or heroic associations. The holiday is not intended to substitute for Christmas, but rather to provide a time to focus on and celebrate African-American culture and traditions.

Kwanzaa is celebrated annually by an estimated 18 million people of African descent throughout the United States, Canada, England and the Caribbean"

Personally, although it wouldn't replace Christmas, it would add a bit of extra "meaning" to it for us, as we are not Christian. I also like how it stresses the idea of non-commercialism.

And thanks Ajax for the thoughts - but if my kids are going to be embarassed by anything it will be for alot more than the holidays we celebrate For example, the other day we went to our 15 yr olds awards ceremony for honour roll. Auditorium was PACKED. My two year old takes off and I go to chase him, but my foot gets caught in my pant leg and I FLY through the air right and land on my...umm...well, you know...in front of the entire auditorium. My 9 yr old thinks this is HILARIOUS and can't stop laughing at the top of his lungs...so, um, yeah, they're going to be embarassed by me no matter what so we might as well have some fun doing it!

[loveajax]

karyn, that's a riot (i sympathize as a fellow klutz!!)

[ml2waiting]

I have to say I have been thinking/reading about the same things regarding Kwanzaa... if/how to celebrate...

DD is very young, but I am thinking it might just be appropriate to tell her/read to her about Kwanzaa each year and let her decide if she wants our family to have a celebration or not... (Or just see if she seems interested in it or not... depends on age)

[joskimo]

we celebrate it, maybe not as well as intended but we make our own multiracial version and light the Kinera every night and on the last night I make a few recipes from my soul food cookbook. I'm not horribly hung up on doing it "by the book" as much as I want my daughter to know that we celebrate her heritage.

[KarynB]

Joskimo - thanks for the reply. I think I am thinking along the same lines - not going crazy trying to do it all, but talking about it, lighting a kinara (which I think we will have to make as I cannot find one!) and doing something every day to discuss the values of Kwanzaa which are our family values anyways!

Care to share any recipes from your cookbook that you guys love but aren't too complicated? We have a South African cookbook that I will use too, but some stuff is hard to find here, or very "meaty" which we don't like.

Karyn

[joskids]

We've never considered celebrating Kwanzaa because my AA husband and his family have never celebrated so now, because we have children, we don't feel a need. Our children do, though, learn about the holiday traditions of other religions in their school programs, and I think that exposure is very good. Their school is very, very diverse, I would be surprised if there isn't any culture not represented there.

[KarynB]

Hello everyone,

Just thought I'd post a bit more about what I've learned in case anyone is interested. Now that I have learned the origins are more Zulu than I realized at first - we will definitely be celebrating this year! Not "full on" but maybe just a few things each year and not make it too overwhelming. We will talk about the priciples, light a Kinara, and maybe each day we will discuss another African/African American person who has made some kind of meaningful contribution to the world.

Some basics:

It was created in 1966 during the civil rights movement
to fill a cultural gap. Other ethnic groups have Hanukkah & Powpows
etc., but Karenga saw that the African American community had no
cultural celebration of their own. Kwanzaa was designed to speak to
the best of what it means to be African.

Kwanzaa is not religious and is compatible with and usually celebrated
along with Christmas/Ramadan. It isn't either or, families can do both.

Zulu Connections:

The originals of Kwanzaa are on the African continent and is similar
to agricultural celebrations called "first fruits," which focus around
harvest time. Kwanzaa was modeled on the Zulu (South Africa), Swazi
(Swaziland) and Yoruba (Nigeria) harvest festival traditions.

The language of Kwanzaa is Swahili although Karenga says he was
intending to use Zulu, but instead ended up choosing Swahili because
it is the most widely spoken language on the African continent.

The Zulu "first fruits" celebration is called "Umkhosi", Swazi called
"Incwala" and Yoruba has 4 variations and names depending on the
tribal region.

The Zulu Umkhosi is 7-days and Kwanzaa is also 7-days. Karenga says
the Zulu celebration "played an important part in the
conceptualization of Kwanzaa as a seven-day holiday." In fact Kwanzaa
is framed around the Zulu Umkhosi festival tradition, including the
timing. Zulu Umkhosi is celebrated from the end of December to early
January, and similarly Kwanzaa was designed to start December 26 and
continue till January 1.

Zulu Umkhosi became the "model of Kwanzaa" and shares its similar
"values and practices" which include gathering, reverence,
commemoration, recommitment and celebration. In other places in the
book Karenga talks about how Kwanzaa is "rooted" in and structured
similarly to Umkhosi.

The Zulu Umkhosi symbol of the corn stalk is also a key Kwanzaa symbol
to thank the ancestors or the collective whole for the continuance of
humans. Stressing humans roots, grounding and origins, which gives
humans strength and meaning.