Gathering Together For Kwanzaa
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Kwanzaa is a seven-day African American holiday. Kwanzaa comes from the First Fruits celebrations in traditional African society. The First Fruits celebrations was a festival held at the end of the year to give thanks, remembrance, and joy at harvesting the crops, which was a collective endeavor (Ujima, “Collective Work and Responsibility.”
How To Celebrate Kwanzaa
Fundamentally, the Kwanzaa celebration has basic activities defining each Kwanza day. Families and communities certainly will add what they see as additional meaningful activities. That said, Essential daily Kwanzaa activities are as follows:
- Ingathering. Each day of Kwanzaa, the family or community is called together to renew and reinforce the bonds of love, caring, and sharing. The ingathering may occur in an intimate family setting, extended family and friends context, or a larger setting.
- Giving Thanks and Remembrance. During the ingathering activity, time is set aside to give thanks for life and the blessing that the family or community has received during the year: the birth of a child, expansion of the family through marriage, remembering those who have passed on.
- Family Discussion. One of the activities that occur during the ingathering activity is discussing the meaning of the seven Kwanzaa symbols- mat, candleholder, the basket of fruit, ears of corn, Unity Cup, *Gifts, Seven Candles. Here, the family discusses the contributions of past and present family members and the history of African Americans.
- Candle Lighting Ceremony. As part of the ingathering activity, each day of Kwanzaa, the family lights the candle that corresponds to that particular day: a black candle on the first day of Kwanzaa, and then alternating with red and green the rest of the days.
- Kwanzaa Commitment. During the candling lighting ceremony, each family member makes a pledge relative to that day/principle of Kwanzaa ( e.g., first day Unity, last day, Faith)
- Kwanzaa Feast. The family enjoys a special holiday meal. There is no set or mandated meal for Kwanzaa. Enjoy your meal.
- Kwanzaa Reinforcing Activity. Each day, the family organizes or thinks of an activity to highlight and reinforce the principle for that day. On Unity Day, the first day of Kwanzaa, the family may, for example, prepare the meal for the fest together or go for a walk together.
- Kwanzaa gift-giving is directed at children and youth, conditioned on commitments made and kept. Additionally, whatever gifts are given, a book and heritage symbol must accompany the gift (s). The book is given to reinforce learning and education and the heritage symbol is a reminder of our African heritage.
