Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of African American culture observed annually from December 26 through January 1.\u00a0 During Kwanzaa, it is customary to greet friends and family with the phrase, “Habari gani,” meaning, “What is the news?”[1]<\/a>\u00a0 In response, one can reply with one of the seven different principles assigned to each day.\u00a0 Every evening during Kwanzaa, a candle is lit on the kinara<\/em>, or traditional candleholder, to honor the seven principles:<\/p>\n These seven tenets of Kwanzaa, or\u00a0Nguzo Saba, are <\/em>collectively referred to as\u00a0Kawaida<\/em>, a\u00a0Swahili word meaning “common.”[2]<\/a>\u00a0 The candles used in the kinara are red, green and black \u2013 each color having a different attribute.\u00a0 The three red candles on the left of the kinara signify the blood shed in the fight for liberation, three green candles on the right stand for the future of Black liberation and the single black candle in the center symbolizes the people this celebration honors.[3]<\/a><\/p>\n Kwanzaa was first celebrated in 1966 when Maulana Karenga, a college professor of Africana studies at California State University in Long Beach, created the holiday to honor and celebrate pan-African culture.\u00a0 Karenga said his goal was to “give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society.”[4]<\/a> \u00a0At the time Karenga conceived of Kwanzaa, Los Angeles was reeling in the aftermath of the Watts Rebellion which devasted the south Los Angeles neighborhood in August 1965 after a traffic stop resulted in the arrest of a 21-year-old African American man, Marquette Frye.\u00a0 For the next six days, violence and civil unrest rocked 46 square miles of Los Angeles.[5]<\/a> It was against this political backdrop that Karenga sought to create a positive force for African Americans and African American culture.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 According to Karenga, Kwanzaa was partly inspired by the Zulu harvest festival, Umkhosi Wokweshwama, a five-day lunar ritual that takes place during the last full moon of the year.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n The name Kwanzaa is taken from the Swahili phrase “matunda ya kwanza,\u201d meaning first fruits.\u00a0 The extra “a” was added, said Karenga, to make the word Kwanzaa seven letters to enhance its symbolic power.[8]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Kwanzaa is a cultural event imbued with spiritual values, but it is not a religious observance.\u00a0 People of all faiths may celebrate Kwanzaa and non-blacks can also observe the holiday.[9]<\/a>\u00a0 On his official Kwanzaa website, Dr. Karenga notes, \u201cThe holiday, then will of necessity, be engaged as an ancient and living cultural tradition which reflects the best of African thought and practice in its reaffirmation of the dignity of the human person in community and culture, the well-being of family and community, the integrity of the environment and our kinship with it, and the rich resource and meaning of a people’s culture.\u201d[10]<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Department of Archives and Special Collections maintains vertical files of documents and materials related to African American Studies, Black Studies, African American Alumni Association\/Council, African American Heritage Month, African American Students Association, Africana Studies, African Student Association, Black History Month, Women of Hope, Black Studies Center, Institute in Afro-American History and Culture, Rallies, and University of Sierra Leone Summer School.\u00a0 The images accompanying this blog post show Annual Kwanzaa celebrations organized by the Black Student Union at Seton Hall University, part of this large <\/em>collection of materials preserved by the university\u2019s archives. These materials are available to students, faculty and researchers.\u00a0<\/em> For access, complete a <\/em>research request form\u00a0<\/em><\/a>to set up an appointment or contact us at 973-761-9476.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n [1]<\/a> http:\/\/anacostia.si.edu\/exhibits\/past_exhibtions\/kwanzaa\/kwanz.htm<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [2]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kwanzaa<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [3]<\/a> https:\/\/www.womansday.com\/life\/a33663207\/when-is-kwanzaa\/<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [4]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kwanzaa#cite_note-5<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [5]<\/a> https:\/\/www.blackpast.org\/african-american-history\/frye-marquette-1944-1986\/<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [6]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Watts_riots<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [7]<\/a> https:\/\/www.zululandnews.co.za\/project\/zulu-first-fruits-cultural-festival-umkhosi-woselwa\/<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [8]<\/a> https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Kwanzaa#cite_note-5<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [9]<\/a> https:\/\/www.history.com\/news\/5-things-you-may-not-know-about-kwanzaa<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n [10]<\/a> https:\/\/www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org\/<\/a>, accessed 12\/15\/2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Kwanzaa Celebration Invitation\u201d 2006 Black Student Union vertical file Seton Hall University Archives and Special Collections HABARI GANI Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration of African American culture observed annually from December 26 through January 1.\u00a0 During Kwanzaa, it is customary to greet friends and family with the phrase, “Habari gani,” meaning, “What is the … Continue reading “Object of the Week: Kwanzaa Celebration Invitation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3623,"featured_media":3853,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[253,256,254,252,255],"class_list":["post-3837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gallery","tag-african-american","tag-black-student-union","tag-kinara","tag-kwanzaa","tag-maulana-kalenga"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3623"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3837"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3861,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions\/3861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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<\/a>![\"\u201cAnnual](\"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/archives\/files\/2020\/12\/invite-with-7-principles-of-Kwanzaa-Nguzo-Saba-Black-Students-Union-2004-232x300.jpg\")
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