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Kwanzaa is first of all a time of ingathering. It is a bringing together of the most valuable fruit or product of the culture - its living human harvest, the people themselves. During Kwanzaa, the family and the entire community renew and reinforce the bonds between them. The values and the practice of the holiday promote communion and sharing and stress the need, in the midst of differences and diversity, to constantly seek - and stand together on - common ground. Next, Kwanzaa is a time of special reverence for the Creator and Creation, of thanksgiving for the good of life and for life itself. As a harvest celebration, Kwanzaa is a time for special appreciation for the earth and all that is on it - living things as well as natural resources. During Kwanzaa, the people recommit themselves to protecting and preserving the earth and to relating rightfully to the environment. Thirdly, Kwanzaa is a time of commemoration of the past, of remembering and praising those upon whose shoulders today's Black people stand, those who dedicated their lives that their descendants might live fuller and more meaningful ones. During the holiday, the people focus on their role as custodians of a great legacy and recommit to honoring their heritage by preserving and expanding upon it. Africans are the fathers and mothers of humanity and human civilization, the sons and daughters of the Holocaust of Enslavement, and the authors and heirs of the reaffirmation of Africanness and of the people's social justice tradition of the 1960s. Each period has left a legacy of challenge, struggle, and achievement; the people honor each by learning of it and living by it. And this activity is a focal point for Kwanzaa. Fourthly, Kwanzaa is a time of recommitment to the ideals of the community, a time to focus, in both thought and practice, on the culture's highest and most fundamental values. Kwanzaa is profoundly and pervasively concerned with values, reflecting the Kawaida contention that values are the hinge on which human possibilities turn. Kwanzaa gives time for examining, refining, and reaffirming what is important in life; at the heart of this activity is not only the character development of persons but also the very life of the community and the vitality of the culture. Kwanzaa was created to introduce and reinforce the Nguzo Saba, or Seven Principles, the basic values of African culture that are the building blocks for the community as well as its social glue. Finally, Kwanzaa is a time for celebration of the Good, for ingathering and rejoicing through renewal of acquaintances, lively dialog, narratives, poetry, dancing, singing, drumming and other music, and feasting. We celebrate community, culture, and friendship, the bountifulness of the earth, the wonder of the universe, the achievements of the elders, and the promise of the young. In short, Kwanzaa honors all that is good in the widest sense of the word - divine, natural, and social. |
