Why I love Kwanzaa

I love Kwanzaa. I started celebrating this holiday in 2008 when my eldest son was 3. I wanted to start a tradition and build a family culture that celebrated Africa and community togetherness. I also wanted a tradition that involved activities and doing something to make the community better or reinforce our family’s mission/vision. I wanted my children to learn that those days require that you do something. And most importantly, I wanted to begin the process of establishing roots and tradition building for our family.

I did not want a holiday focusing on gifts and presents. My husband and I are very particular about providing our children our presence as opposed to presents.

But most importantly, I did not want to repeat the mistakes my mother made with holidays. We did not celebrate Christmas. Never had the tree or the hoop la made about presents and that time of the year. We were given presents, but as an afterthought. There was no shopping, no preparation, no lists. My mother thought it was a pagan holiday and not Christian. Sounded great to me even then, but where was our alternative? What do we have if the pagans have Christmas?

I had wished we were given the opportunity to create our own tradition as a family or as non pagans. I would have taken any chance to understand who we were and why we were not pagans. But like many parents, she did not have the time to be that creative or to recognize that building culture compels you to be creative especially to children who just want to perform an activity/event with their parents.

Culture and tradition is founded on performance and repetition. Someone thinks of an idea of what makes us “different” or “better” and acts on it. Instead of just taking their (often his) word for it, he spends some time on constructing and creating this difference. It often includes food and music. And why not, tradition is to be celebrated.

Becoming a parent also turned me into a quasi performance artist. I dance, sing and clap at a drop of a dime. My children expect that from me. I dance and sing to get children to sleep, eat, use potty instead of soiling the floor, and to learn.

My repertoire also included arts and crafts. And because I was performing and doing crafts on a daily basis, I searched for a tradition that would permit me to combine both.

Imagine my excitement when I began researching Kwanzaa. It had everything that I searched for. It centered Africa, based on African culture, about family, community and was flexible to permit me to do it my way. The way my family celebrates Kwanzaa is most likely different from most people.

My interest was further peaked when I found a set of Kwanzaa worksheets online which included various forms of word games, puzzles, and coloring pages. We did about 3 pages a night during the week and learned a great deal about Kwanzaa. This permitted us to know more about the holiday and got my son excited about this activity. I loved this link even more because it merged learning with fun games and activities. Here is the link to my favorite Kwanzaa worksheet activity.  http://p6.hostingprod.com/@holidaycrosswords.com/nonfiction/KwanzaaWorksheets.pdf

Kwanzaa has been the major holiday in our family ever since. It is an exciting time of the year because we plan community activities that reinforce our commitment to each other and our community. We also celebrate with our community by having activities that bring us all together as opposed to staying at home. Last year the children were given a chance to weave Kente.

Kwanzaa also compliments homeschooling in Ghana. It provides the children a communal reinforcement of what we do daily. We learn about Africa, how to make the world a better place, how to plant trees, grow food and how to keep our bodies fit. Sounds great to me!

Now on to designing this year’s program.