Muskan

· 12 Jan 2022

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When is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa is a week-long cultural celebration among African-Americans communities. Although its popularity faded after its peak in the 1980s and 1990s, millions of Americans still celebrate the holiday every year. Black folks in Canada and the Caribbean also celebrate it. Here we talk in detail about When is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is an annual week-long festival that runs from December 26 to January 1 every year. Kwanzaa was created by Dr. Maulana Karenga, an African-American author, professor, and activist, and was first celebrated in 1966. In reaction to the Watts Riots in Los Angeles in 1965, he devised this holiday as a method to bring African-Americans together as a group. Kwanzaa primarily honors family, culture, community, and the harvest. It highlights the importance of the pan-African family and the social norms that go with it. Kwanzaa is derived from the Kiswahili term matunda ya kwanza, which means the first fruits of the crop in Swahili. Kwanzaa reached its pinnacle of popularity throughout the 1980s and 1990s Afrocentric movement. Kwanzaa gained popularity as the Afrocentric movement, emphasizing Black self-sufficiency in opposition to white imperialist narratives and histories.  

Kwanzaa is not a religious festival, even though it is sometimes mistaken for Christmas or Hanukkah. Families that celebrate Kwanzaa generally do so in combination with Christmas, Hanukkah, or another religious holiday.

Singing and dancing, storytelling, poetry reading, African drumming, and delicious treats are all common features of celebrations. The family gathers on each of the seven evenings. A youngster burns one of the candles on the kinara, followed by a discussion of one of the seven principles. These ideas are African cultural beliefs that help African Americans develop and maintain a sense of community. The seven main principles of Kwanzaa, known as the Nguzo Saba, are each represented by one day of the seven-day celebration. They are the guiding concepts. Here are the principles:

1.    Unity (Umoja): To work for and maintain unity in one's family, community, country, and race.
2.    Self-determination (kujichagulia): The ability to define, name, create for and speak for oneself.
3.    Collaborative labor and responsibility (ujima): To work together to establish and sustain our community, and to make our brothers' and sisters' issues our problems to address.
4.    Cooperative economics (ujamaa): To create and operate our stores, shops, and other companies and to benefit from them collectively.
5.    Purpose (nia): To make the creation and development of our community our collective purpose to return our people to their traditional magnificence.
6.    Creativity (kuumba): To constantly do all we can, in whatever way we can, to leave our community in a better and more helpful state than we found it.
7.    Faith (Imani): To believe in our people, our parents, our instructors, our leaders, and the justice and triumph of our battle with all of our hearts.

On the last day, a feast known as the karamu is celebrated.
Kwanzaa was developed with the community and cultural spirit of traditional African harvest holidays in mind, but it is mostly celebrated in the United States, Canada, and the Caribbean.

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