Kwanzaa is a time to celebrate African heritage and further strengthen core family values using seven African principles: umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity) and imani (faith). It's also a time to entrench oneself in four decades of tradition.
Kwanzaa, which means "fresh fruits," is a week-long celebration that runs from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1. In this time, a different principle is celebrated each night through African proverbs, songs, chants and gift giving. Gifts normally include a traditional African heritage symbol and a book to stress ethnic values.
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, then the leader of the Us Organization, a black nationalist group. His goal: "To give blacks an alternative holiday to Christmas." Today Karenga is a professor of black studies at California State University. The seven principles of Kwanzaa also correspond to Karenga's notion that "the sevenfold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black," which he asserts in his book The Quotable Karenga.
During Kwanzaa, families decorate their homes with harvest symbols and other ethnic artifacts and dress in traditional African garb that exude the colors of Kwanzaa--black (to symbolize the people), red (to represent the bloodshed and struggle for equality), and green (representing hope for the future).
Traditionally, there is a central decoration that holds seven candles: three red candles, three green candles and one black candle (which is lit on the first night).
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