Why is kwanzaa important

The Kwanzaa candles and harvest This is symbolic of our roots, our parent people — continental Africans. These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles, the matrix and minimum set of values which African people are urged to live by in order to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs. This is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible.

These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children. The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are the colors of the Organization Us, black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle, and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle. It is based on the colors given by the Hon. On each day of the Kwanzaa celebration, hosts include a dish from a different country in the African diaspora.

These national dishes from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America, help to highlight different cultures and customs. Kwanzaa meals might include Jollof Rice, a traditional West African dish, jerk meats from the Caribbean, and black beans that are popular in Caribbean and South American dishes.

During Kwanzaa, some people abstain from eating meat or fast until the Kwanzaa feast. This decision is a personal choice. The decision to omit meat can also be linked to Kwanzaa principles, such as self-determination and faith. Historically, the choice to omit meat from the diet harks back to the challenges of African slaves to survive in new lands, when meat was not included in their meals.

The Kwanzaa Karamu can be an intimate event with close family and friends or a large community celebration. This menu can be a cooperative effort with each person bringing a dish. These dishes can be family favorites or foods of one particular country.

In the spirit of Kwanzaa and learning about African heritage, some families and churches select one country, and the entire Karamu menu includes dishes and foods from that specified land. Save Pin FB More. Kinara — The candelabrum is symbolic of ancestry. Indeed, since the early years of the holiday, until today, Kwanzaa has provided many black families with tools for instructing their children about their African heritage.

This spirit of activism and pride in the African heritage is evident on college campus Kwanzaa celebrations — one of which I recently attended. It was done a few days early so that students going on break could participate. The speaker, a veteran of the Nashville civil rights movement, spoke about Kwanzaa as a time of memory and celebration. Wearing an African dashiki, he led those in attendance — blacks and whites and those of other ethnicities — in Kwanzaa songs and recitations.

On a table decorated in kente cloth, a traditional African fabric, was a kinara, which contains seven holes, to correspond to the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa. There were three red candles on the left side of the kinara, and three green candles on the right side of the kinara. The center candle was black.

The colors of the candles represent the red, black and green of the African Liberation flag. The auditorium was packed. Since that time the holiday has become a regular and much-anticipated fixture on the calendar for millions of African Americans and for people of African descent in countries everywhere. Families and communities celebrate the holiday through a series of observances that correspond to the Nguzo Saba , the communitarian principles Karenga choose as those most important to the values of black people: on the first day observers celebrate Umoja , or unity; on the second Kujichagulia , or self determination; following is Ujima , or collective work and responsibility; while the fourth principle is Ujamaa , or cooperative economics; the fifth principle is Nia , or purpose; and the sixth is Kuumba , or creativity; finally comes perhaps the most important, Imani , which is to say faith.

Over the decades Kwanzaa celebrations have evolved, becoming increasingly stylish, stylized, and elaborate. At first a purely secular expression of black nationalism—and a conscious alternative to the mainstream winter holidays—Kwanzaa has since become for most practitioners not a repudiation of the season's more familiar fare but rather an addition to it.

And so it is that the Kinara's light blends with that of the Christmas lights, and the Zawadi are wrapped and kept with the Christmas presents. Women wear the multihued Uwole, and houses are decorated with the colorful Bendera.

The Mishumaa Saba are lit. Libations are poured, the Kuumba is reverently uttered, and "Habari Gani" greetings happily exchanged. On 31 December, the next to last day, a feast is held, preferably with the entire community.