Kwanza

Camille De BeusStaff WriterEveryone always says Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanzaa, but what exactly is Kwanzaa again?Kwanzaa is a week long celebration that occurs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. Some confuse it with Christmas because its colors are green, red, and black, and both green and red are traditional Christmas colors. Its purpose is to honor African American heritage and culture. The week long celebration normally culminates in the exchange of gifts and a grand feast.The creator of Kwanzaa is Ron Karenga (sometimes referred to as Maulana Karenga). He created the holiday in 1966 during the Civil Rights movement and labeled it as an African American alternative to Christmas.“It’s sort of like an invented holiday,” H-House Student Outreach Specialist Kimberly Nao said. “It’s a way for African Americans to reclaim the traditions that they had back in Africa, because we’ve been cut off from African culture through slave trade. Most African Americans became Christian, so they just celebrated Christmas, but a lot of Afrocentrists, which are people who really believe in preserving African culture, wanted to reach back to African cultural traditions.”Each day of Kwanzaa is built on an African principle. Each principle is in Swahili, an African tribal language. An example of one is Nia, which means purpose. There’s a different purpose that is highlighted for the day.“You’re supposed to give gifts, but the gifts are supposed to be something that you’ve made,” Nao said. “You’re not really supposed to go buy stuff. It’s not like Christmas which is really commercialized. You’re supposed to make a gift or give a meaningful gift to someone on each day of Kwanzaa.”Nao mentioned other Kwanzaa traditions, such as what people talk about on during Kwanzaa.“You should really engage in discussions around whatever the principle of the day is and what you try to do is greet people with the word of the day,” Nao said.In a way, Kwanzaa blends Hanukkah and Christmas together. There are Kwanzaa candles that are based off the menorah but they are red, green and black. These are the colors of the African flag but red and green are also the well recognized “Christmas colors.”“People also light the candles,” Nao said. “There’s a particular order in which you’re supposed to light the candles in. You usually have red on one side, black in the middle and green on the other side. Red, black and green are the colors of Africa. Red symbolizes the blood, black symbolizes the people and green symbolizes the land. So, what you do, is you go back in forth between red and green, until you get to the middle, and then you do the black one last.”Like most holidays, the main idea is to unite families and friends.“There’s a unity cup,” Nao said. “You drink something from the cup and it’s passed around, it’s communal.”Kwanzaa is not a widely celebrated holiday but it is still fairly popular.“I had a time period where I did celebrate Kwanzaa,” Nao said. “Just because I felt like it was important to carry on the traditions and I do think that having a link to Africa is very important. “According to Jamila Salih (’13), Kwanzaa is very different from Christmas.“My family celebrates Kwanzaa. We exchange gifts,” Salih said. “We decorate the table, and have things like vegetables on the tables.”Whether you celebrate Kwanzaa or not, it’s easy to see why many families, such as Salih’s continue to celebrate the holiday to keep the bond with their culture alive.cdebeus@thesamohi.com