Difference between revisions of "Kwanzaa"
(New page: Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, and consisiting of one week of celebrating, in honor of African-American heritage. The most well know...) |
|||
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
*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. | *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. <ref>2</ref> | *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. <ref>2</ref> | ||
| − | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 22:02, December 26, 2008
Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, and consisiting of one week of celebrating, in honor of African-American heritage. The most well known-symbol of Kwanzaa is the Kinara, a candle holder with seven candles, which is similar to the Jewish hanukiah.
It's purpose is both to honor African-American heritage and to provide a holiday especially for African-Americans, so that they don't have to simply accept existing traditions, as shown by Dr. Karenga's following quote: "...it was chosen to give a Black alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." [1]
Seven Principles of Kwanzaa
Each day of the week-long celebration is dedicated to one of Dr. Karenga's "Seven Principles of Kwanzaa":
- Umoja (Unity) To strive for and to 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. [2]