Kwanzaa is an African-American holiday observed by more than 28 million people worldwide that celebrates family, community and culture.

The seven-day holiday is observed throughout the world from December 26 through January 1 and is rooted in the ancient African first-fruit harvest celebrations. In Swahili, Kwanzaa means "first fruits."

The modern day holiday, however, began in 1966, developed by African-American activist Maulana Karenga. African Americans who celebrate Kwanzaa do so for the same reasons those from other cultures celebrate other holidays – "to teach and reaffirm cultural views, values and practices of a people," says Karenga, who serves as head of the Department of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach, Calif.

The celebration encompasses five fundamental activities:

• Gathering of family, friends and community.
• Reverence for the creator and creation (including thanksgiving and a recommitment to respect the environment and heal the world).
• Commemoration of the past such as honoring ancestors and emulating achievements of African history.
• Recommitment to the highest cultural ideals of the African community such as truth, justice, respect of nature and people.
• Celebration of the "Good of Life" such as life, struggle, family and community.

The Meaning of Kwanzaa
Kwanzaa is based on the cultural principles of a theory called Kawaida, according to the Kwanzaa Information Center of Norfolk, Va. The premise of the Kawaida theory is that social revolutionary change for blacks in America can be achieved by the act of revealing and disclosing to individuals their cultural heritage.

Kwanzaa is a spiritual holiday with no ties to religion. It is celebrated through various rituals including poetry, dancing, singing, music and feasting. A common holiday practice is the lighting of the mishumaa – seven candles – of Kwanzaa. A candle is lit for each day for each of Kwanzaa's seven principles. The principles are called Nguzo Saba. The principles followed during the holiday as well as by many during the rest of the year are, first in English, then in Swahili:

• Unity (umoja) – to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.
• Self-determination (kujichagulia) – to define oneself, name oneself, create for oneself and speak for oneself.
• Collective work and responsibility (ujima) – to build and maintain community together and take one's problems and make them everyone's problems and to solve them together.
• Cooperative economics (ujamaa) – to build and maintain African-American owned stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together.
• Purpose (nia) – to make a collective vocation of the building and developing of community to restore African-American people to their traditional greatness.
• Creativity (Kuumba) – to do always as much as one can, in the way one can, to leave a community more beautiful and beneficial than when they inherited it.
• Faith (imani) – to believe with all heart in the people, parents, teachers, leaders and the righteousness and victory of the African-American struggle.

Karenga says the seven principles seek to reaffirm and bring forth the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense.

There also are seven symbols of Kwanzaa and two supplemental ones. Each represents values and concepts reflective of African culture and contributive to community building and reinforcement, according to Karenga, in his writings on his Official Kwanzaa Web site. The basic symbols are in English and then Swahili:

• The Crops (Mazao) – These are symbolic of African harvest celebrations and of the rewards of productive and collective labor.
• The Mat (Mkeka) – This is symbolic of tradition and history and, therefore, the foundation on which Kwanzaa is built.
• The Candle Holder (Kinara) – This is symbolic of roots and that of continental Africans.
• The Corn (Muhindi) – This is symbolic of children and the future which they embody.
• The Seven Candles (Mishumaa Saba) – These are symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the seven principles, the minimum set of values that African people are urged to live by to rescue and reconstruct their lives in their own image and according to their own needs.
• The Unity Cup (Kikombe cha Umoja) – This is symbolic of the foundational principle and practice of unity which makes all else possible.
• The Gifts (Zawadi) – These are symbolic of the labor and love of parents and the commitments made and kept by the children.

The two supplemental symbols are:

• The Flag (Bendera) – The colors of the Kwanzaa flag are black, red and green; black for the people, red for their struggle and green for the future and hope that comes from their struggle.
• Poster of the Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba Poster)

The Importance of Seven
The number seven has significant meaning in Kwanzaa. "The number seven in African culture is associated with the good of life," Karenga says. "The harvest festival umkhosi of the Zulu people is seven days long. The Dogon people’s sacred narrative of creation explains creation in terms of seven vibrations emanating from the creative and rhythmic movement of the Creator, and the ancient Egyptian people have seven cardinal virtues based on the principle of Maat – rightness in the world. So the number seven has an ancient and ongoing association with the principle of good in the world in African culture."

Kwanzaa is a seven-day holiday, he says, because it is modeled after first-fruits celebrations in ancient Africa, many of which have seven days. Another reason is to stress the seven principles.

Celebrating Kwanzaa
During the seven days, celebrants decorate their homes in traditional African colors and many wear traditional clothing. Families meet together for seven nights, lighting a candle on the kinara each night, beginning with the center black candle. The other candles are red and green, the colors of the Kwanzaa flag. The second night, the black and a red candle are lit. On the third, a green candle is lit along with the red and the black. One more candle is lit each night until all seven are glowing.

Each night after the candles are lit someone in the family explains the idea or belief for the day and stories are told. On the sixth night there is a large feast called karamu. Traditional foods such as baked catfish, collard greens, black-eyed peas and sweet potato pie are eaten.

On the last night all seven candles are lit and children receive their gifts. Celebrants also assess themselves and consider their worthiness in their families, communities and culture on the final day.

Principles to Live By
Carmen McDonald of Phoenix, Ariz., mother of one, has celebrated Kwanzaa for about four years and uses Kwanzaa's guiding principles in her everyday life, not just once a year. "I'd done a lot of research and knew what it was about," she says of deciding to celebrate the holiday. "After reading the principles I found out [they paralleled] a lot of my views ... One is cooperative economics. I have been doing that all along – It's just beautiful to me. It's something I try to practice all year. I have the seven principles posted in my cubicle at work."

McDonald, originally from St. Louis, says she hasn't met many families or individuals in Phoenix who celebrate Kwanzaa, though there is a small Kwanzaa festival she attends every year. Her boyfriend, from Trinidad, celebrates the seven-day holiday with her.

McDonald says her favorite part of the holiday is the feast. Every year, she cooks a honey-baked ham, a variety of seafood, collard greens, black-eyed peas and a sweet potato pie. "To me, it's a great celebration. It means a lot to me," she says. "It's a beautiful thing."

One of the most impressive aspects of Kwanzaa, Karenga says, is its growth among Africans throughout the world. "It is now practiced by over 28 million people throughout the world African community," he says. "[It] is embraced and grows among African people because it speaks to our need and appreciation for its cultural vision and life-affirming values – values which celebrate and reinforce family, community and culture, and challenges us to constantly bring forth the best of what it means to be African and human in the fullest sense."

Want to see more?

• iParenting's Holiday Headquarters
• Holiday Spirit: Helping Your Preteenager Make the Most of the Giving Season
• Transferring Traditions: Passing Down Family Traditions to Your Children
• Preteenagers Today MomsTalk