By Ethan Clawson <\/p>\n\n\n\n
American Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the aftermath of the Watts Riots as a specifically African American holiday. This holiday was created to \u201cGive African Americans an alternative to the existing holiday of Christmas and give them an opportunity to celebrate themselves and their history,\u201d said Karenga<\/strong>. The name Kwanzaa derives from the Swahili phrase \u201cMutanda ya kwanza\u201d, meaning first fruits. Fruit Festivals still exist in South Africa and are celebrated in January and December with the summer solstice. Kwanzaa celebrates what Karenga called the 7 principles of Kwanzaa. First principle is \u201cUmoja\u201d which is Unity and is meant to bring friends and family together. Second is \u201cKugichagulia\u201d which is self-definition. Next is \u201cUjima\u201d which is basically one person\u2019s problems is the community\u2019s, everyone is one big happy family. Fourth is \u201cUjamaa\u201d which is cooperative economics which is to build and maintain our own businesses and profit from them together. Fifth is \u201cNia\u201d which is purpose, we all have a reason to be here so we all should uplift and care for each other\u2019s dreams. Next up is \u201cKuumba\u201d which is creativity. It means let your mind wander and create what you see. Last is \u201cImani\u201d which is faith. These seven principles are what the 7 candles of Kwanzaa represent. Each day of Kwanzaa another candle is lit until all 7 are lit. The candles are to be made of pure beeswax <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lenape Tech teachers were asked about Kwanzaa and this is what they said. Ms. Shoen<\/strong> said, \u201cIt\u2019s an annual African-American holiday, celebrated after Christmas. They celebrate for seven days; each day is a celebration for seven principles. I am not sure of all the principles, but one is about unity. Families come together to celebrate with bright African colors (to represent the colors of their African tribes they descended from), they light a candle each night, and the last night they have a huge feast.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ethan Clawson American Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 during the aftermath of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1322"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1324,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1322\/revisions\/1324"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lenapetechtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}