The season of Kwanzaa began on Dec. 26 and continues through Jan. 2. According to http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org, Kwanzaa is a pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community and culture created by Dr. Maulana Karenga in 1966.

In his 2018 address, founder Karenga writes that this year’s annual theme is “Embracing the Principles and Practice of Kwanzaa: Creating and Celebrating the Good.”

“Surely, if we truly value Kwanzaa and believe in its principles, we must embrace those principles and the practices that are rooted in and rise out of these principles,” he wrote. “By ‘embrace,’ I mean to grasp and hold tightly and firmly as an expression of affection and commitment. Its original meaning is to hold in the arms, but we must embrace the Nguzo Saba in heart and mind grasping them and holding them tightly and firmly as an expression of our love of them and commitment to them as the source, ground and impetus for some of our most essential commitments, thought and practice.”

The principles that Karenga refers to are Umoja: Unity. To strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Kujichagulia: Self-determination; Ujima: Collective work and responsibility; Ujamaa: Cooperative economics; Nia: Purpose; Kuumba: Creativity; Imani: Faith.

Kwanzaa is a celebration with its roots in the black nationalist movement of the 1960s. According to Wikipedia, Karenga established it to help African Americans reconnect with their African cultural and historical heritage by uniting in meditation and study of African traditions and Nguzo Saba, the “seven principles of African Heritage.”