Happy Boxing Day and Happy start of Kwanzaa.
Boxing Day
is a British holiday on the day after Christmas, whose meaning and origin are varied, with one explanation being:
It was the day when people would give a present or Christmas 'box' to those who have worked for them throughout the year. This is still done in Britain for postmen and paper-boys - though now the 'box' is usually given before Christmas, not after.
See the article for further explanations.
Kwanzaa
celebrated December 26 to January 1, is explained in this video below if you are interested in a complete but concise explanation. The irreverent video at the top frame of this post, besides being entertaining, showing up all over the web, illustrates a point, which I'll get to at the conclusion of this post.
Kwanzaa:
is a non-religious African American holiday which celebrates family, community, and culture.
The name Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase 'matunda ya kwanza' which means 'first fruits' in Swahili. The kinara is the center of the Kwanzaa setting and represents the original stalk from which we came: our ancestry.
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Kwanzaa
(or Kwaanza) is a week-long Pan-African secular holiday primarily honoring African-American heritage. It is observed almost exclusively in the United States of America.
Kwanzaa consists of seven days of celebration, featuring activities such as candle-lighting and pouring of libations, and culminating in a feast and gift-giving. It was founded by Ron Karenga, and first celebrated from December 26, 1966, to January 1, 1967. Karenga calls Kwanzaa the African American branch of "first fruits" celebrations of classical African cultures.
The Seven Principles
or Nguzo Saba are a set of ideals created by Dr. Maulana Karenga. Each day of Kwanzaa emphasizes a different principle:
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 brothers' and sisters' 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.
These principles correspond to Karenga's notion that "the seven-fold path of blackness is think black, talk black, act black, create black, buy black, vote black, and live black.
Underlying these principles are Black pride, a return to roots, and unity.
The History of Kwanzaa
Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chairman of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach, created Kwanzaa in 1966. After the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Dr. Karenga searched for ways to bring African-Americans together as a community. He founded US, a cultural organization, and started to research African 'first fruit' (harvest) celebrations. Karenga combined aspects of several different harvest celebrations, such as those of the Ashanti and those of the Zulu, to form the basis of Kwanzaa.
Kwanzaa Celebrations
Common to the celebrations are song, dance, and African drums.
Each family celebrates Kwanzaa in its own way, but celebrations often include songs and dances, African drums, storytelling, poetry reading, and a large traditional meal. On each of the seven nights, the family gathers and a child lights one of the candles on the Kinara (candleholder), then one of the seven principles is discussed. The principles, called the Nguzo Saba (seven principles in Swahili) are values of African culture which contribute to building and reinforcing community among African-Americans. Kwanzaa also has seven basic symbols which represent values and concepts reflective of African culture. An African feast, called a Karamu, is held on December 31.
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Points
Blessings
First, God bless all of our African American brothers and sisters who are celebrating this holiday today. May you gain great joy from your family and friends with your festivities and rededicate your life to your purpose.
Implications
I see good and bad in the holiday.
The Good
I love ritual and believe that with the passing of time we have lost some of the meaning of rituals in our existence. With the rise of secularism in America, some of us have lost the great soothing of our Catholic or other rituals that used to fill our lives with meaning. Kwanzaa admirably fulfills this purpose.
The emphasis on family and unity in Kwanza cannot but be a positive thing.
The desire to leave communities more beautiful and beneficial is wonderful.
Plus, the general feeling of Kwanzaa appears to be joyful and celebratory. We humans need more of this, and Kwanzaa, like Christmas, is a fine exercise in good cheer, dance, song, and laughter.
The Bad
Kwanzaa is one of those movements that was born of black pride and separatism; and an expression of the storied multi-culturism, which is the politically correct liberal rage even today.
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Much of the emphasis on separateness, I believe, comes from a misunderstanding of e pluribus unam, on which our country was founded, whose meaning is out of the many, one. The multiculturalists have distorted the meaning to become out of one, many. In other words, our country was founded on the principle of unity among all our citizens, out of the many kinds of people we attract here. Our country was not founded on creating a separateness within our unity—rather, on creating a unity despite our differences.
The emphasis ought to be on being Americans. Fine, I know, Irish Americans and Polish Americans and German Americans take a great deal of pride, some of them, in their heritage and celebrations. This adds to the richness of life, as does Kwanzaa. On the other hand. the Irish, Polish, German et al Americans never strive to separate themselves from the rest of America. They don't dedicate their lives to just the welfare of their fellow Irish, Poles, or Germans.
In my social work days, I entered the homes of several Afro-centric homes, some of them that celebrate Kwanzaa. Though these were wonderful people, with great family structure, respect and dignity, hard-working, good Americans—I was struck by their insularity. All the pictures in the homes were of blacks—not just those of family members, but every piece of art and so on. It looked like the mirror-image of some white homes that seem to ban anything smacking of color from its walls.
Plus, despite the humanity and decency and religiosity emanating from these homes and people, I also got the feeling of an us versus them atmosphere. I even heard what to me were racist remarks at times. "Blacks have to be better than whites to succeed." "All black children will face misery in their lives." And so on. The assumption being that all whites are racist.
One other major criticism I have of Kwanzaa is that it is inner-directed to a fault. Every effort in a black's life is directed, by this philosophy, towards helping blacks—not towards helping whites and other races; not by helping their communities, just black communities; and not by helping America. In fact, it is directed at creating an enclave within America, without any connection or responsibility to society as a whole.
There are other criticisms of Kwanzaa which I won't go into, like its seeming promotion of communism, and so on.
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Conclusions
I remain of mixed feelings about Kwanzaa. I see much good in it, concerning family, ritual, joy, and heritage. I regret, though, that Kwanzaa seems to separate a group of people from the mainstream, rather than merely promote its individuality.
The irreverent video at the head of today's post shows how far the search for separateness can go. Some people, white and black, want to distinguish themselves by vulgarity, profanity, and crudeness. Some people make a good living at it. Others entertain us with it. The majority, though, of those who adopt it get stuck in lives of anger, without the possibility of joining in society, without the chance to rise economically, and with a mentality of us versus them that guarantees unhappiness.
God bless all of you who celebrate Kwanzaa, and may you have joyous days this holiday season for you.
Rock
(*Wikipedia is always my source unless indicated.)
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15 comments:
Well now Mr Rock, thank you for the lesson in Kwansaa, your post was very informative to me, I must admit that I knew very little of the origin of and history of Kwanzaa. What I have learned about it was in Atlanta a few years back when the "anger" and the mentality of "us versus them" reared its ugly head.
The celebration in Atlanta is one big party with days of drinking, drugs, and violence. There were gangs of blacks seeking out whites for retribution. I must have missed that part in your video.
I avoided driving through Atlanta on a return trip to florida.
It is not my intent to be politically incorrect but I think someone needs to reflect to “peace and goodwill to all men” aspect of the holidays.
The old sarge
Charlie, I don't doubt that an "us versus them" kind of outlook can lead to violence. I'm sorry to hear it has happened. I remember "peace advocates" in the 60's and 70's hitting people with their signs while saying "Peace not War!"
People can do some strange things.
Thanks for your comments, and continue to have happy holidays.
Rock
My man, I have to take serious exception to your criticisms of Kwanzaa, not due to your opinions of course, but due to your gross misunderstandings of the holiday.
1. "The emphasis ought to be on being Americans."
Would you tell an American Jew that the emphasis of Hannakah celebrations in America "ought to emphasize being American?" or that they should speak in English during their prayers rather than Hebrew? Of course not! Racism ought NOT exist and had America as a whole been kinder towards Black people historically, this wouldn't be an issue. Kwanzaa emphasizes the celebration of African heritage, not a separation from America.
2. "Much of the emphasis on separateness, I believe, comes from a misunderstanding of e pluribus unam, on which our country was founded, whose meaning is out of the many, one."
It wasn't/isn't African Americans who had/have a misunderstanding of e pluribus unam. Remember the 60's now- the firehoses, the German shepards, the fire bombings, the KKK, the impossible poll tests, the segregation, the economic oppression, lynchings, etc, etc, etc. At a time when most Black people were actively TRYING to become equal partners in American society and live out the true meaning of "e pluribus unam" it was racist/prejudice white people and American GOVERNMENTS at the federal, state and local levels who fought vehemently to keep us separate and socially/economically disenfranchised.
3. "Kwanzaa is one of those movements that was born of black pride and separatism; and an expression of the storied multi-culturism,"
Kwanzaa is not a "movement" nor is it separatist. The holiday came about to instill historical pride and forge a culturally African holiday tradition that had up to that point been missing from Black homes. You and 98% of the White people living in the US can trace your family ancestory to a specific country of origin and relate to it's culture in some way, even visit distant relatives in Europe if you want. You have the CHOICE to celebrate a Polish/Irish/Italian/English/Germanversion of holiday traditions if you wish and take historical pride in it, but for 98% of Black people that's not even an option. Kwanzaa and it's African traditions are the closest Black people will come to a "traditional" holiday celebration. I paid to have a DNA test conducted to find MY specific heritage (read 4/18 and 4/19 on my blog archive) but ask ANY Black person what their country of origin is and you will get a look of dismay and scorn because most don't know and probably never will. That my friend, is something you will NEVER understand or relate to.
4. "Our country was not founded on creating a separateness within our unity—rather, on creating a unity despite our differences."
Though you believe that it was established to "create a unified society", it did so by SEPARATING White settlers from Native Americans, and using a SEPARATED enslaved African population to create a strong economy, at one point considering a slave only three-fifths of a human. How horribly were Asians treated in the early 1800's? It was "unified" if you were part of the White majority, but you were thought of as virtually less than human otherwise. In fact Kwanzaa was established just two years after the Civil Rights Act made it illegal to discriminate against people based on religion, race and gender. Mathematically, it took nearly 200 years to lay just the groundwork for a "unified" country. How quickly we forget history....
5. "One other major criticism I have of Kwanzaa is that it is inner-directed to a fault. Every effort in a black's life is directed, by this philosophy, towards helping blacks—not towards helping whites and other races; not by helping their communities, just black communities"
You're taking the seven principals of Kwanzaa and applying them to a modern context. These principals were created in the 1960's and I don't think I need to remind you what foul types of things were happening to Black people in the 1960's. The "philosophy" was rooted in the idea that the government was not protecting Black peoples' rights, nor supporting Black causes but was actively usurping them and it was up to the community to protect itself culturally, economically and socially. American society was for the most part treating the Black population as a separate group so Karenga sought to make that population as vibrant as possible. Despite this, Karenga made the FIRST principal Umoja which "strives for and maintain unity in the family, community, NATION and race." He wasn't talking about Nigeria, Togo, and Ghana, he was talking about the USA.
Sarge,
"The celebration in Atlanta is one big party with days of drinking, drugs, and violence....There were gangs of blacks seeking out whites for retribution."
I LIVE in Atlanta and I think you're a bit out of touch. If there WAS a gang, drinking and comitting violence as you claim, they surely weren't celebrating Kwanzaa. Did you see those little elves attacking Santa Clause too?
Well Mr. Paz
Merry Christmas, or happy holidays, whichever you prefer. Nice to hear from you and I do hope you have had an enjoyable holiday season.
My time of reference is in the early to mid 1990's, I have a home in the North Georgia Mountains, I watched the news from Atlanta and acted accordingly. I would love to be wrong, but I know what I know.
Happy also to know you are a fellow Georgian, being a Liberal in the heart of a very conservative state must be somewhat akin ti being a conservative in Palm Beach County, Florida. I do hope you were not a supporter of Cynthia, Mc, if you were there is little hope for us to reach consensus.
I am a native of Floyd County, Ga. My friend Mr. Anonymous might call me a “Cracker” and I must admit that growing up in the deep south during the 1940's and 1950's I was a “Cracker”, in my lifetime I grew and learned right from wrong, I no longer harbor the teachings of my youth. I would hope that Anonymous can grow and forgive and forget, that is the only hope we have.
The old sarge
Empress Bee and Charlie, sorry for the trouble. I've made one adjustment in this template, and then made two Test Blogs with further adjustments.
If you can just look at these, be precise, and tell me which of the three comes out better on your end. Just pay attention to the right column and its overlap. Please tell me exactly what you see--if there is an overlap, how much? If you can, tell me how many letters overlap?
Here are the three templates, including the one you're on.
Test 2
Test
Truth
Sorry for the inconvenience. I'd be much appreciative. Thanks.
Rock
hi there!
okay, test2 - 6
test - 7
truth - 10
and did you see where i made you into newt since i didn't know what you looked like? bee
This is strange Mr Rock, I have an older dell laptop with a smaller screen and your blog is perfect.
In a newer laptop I still have overlap
Test 2...........14 letters, 1 or 2 spaces from side of charlie brown
Test........overlaps charlie by one letter
Truth....3 letters into charlie b
I would think it was my problem but miss b has the same thing, you have got a lot of stuff on your site.
Charlie and Empress Bee, thanks so much. Now please look at this, my main blog. I've adjusted it again. Still overlap? If so, how many letters from the posts, not from Charlie.
If I've adjusted too much, how many letters do you guess I can put back (move the right column to the left)?
Thanks. Charlie, with regard to how much stuff I have--is it too much? Too cluttered? The amount of stuff has nothing to do with my template problem--the problem appears with or without the stuff. It's the 3-column template that is the problem. It still has bugs.
Thanks again.
Rock
Thanks for sharing your views..very interesting!
Peace
rock, it still overlaps five digits on my computer. bee
About the same as Miss Bee.
Your site reflect you...the classic "Overachiever" that's what I like about you.........
you asked if there is too much stuff.... heck no!! and it loads fast too. i have one blog that i read that taked forever to load, yours is very fast. but the cartoon at the top and the right column still overlap. want me to take a photo? email me if you want... becordle@gmail.com
I would suggest that as a Pan-African holiday, Kwanzaa is about bringing Black people together and reconnecting with Africa. That's very different from seperatism.
Thanks Abdul-Halim. You may be right.
Rock
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