Are there people who really believe in Kwanzaa?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I confess that my only exposure to Kwaanza is from American media - no African that I have met celebrated it, indeed, they had never heard of it.

I just looked it up on Wikipedia, and it seems a bit of a joke.
It’s like a group of black activists looked at Christmas, said “that’s too white”, and made up a holiday.

Does anyone really take it seriously in America?

By take it seriously, I mean think of it as a real celebration, and not just to make a point.

EDIT: Btw, if I keep missing out letters (as in the title) its because something spilled on my keyboard, and the keys are sticky and stiff.

2

All holidays are “made up.” They mean whatever the group of people observing them chooses to make them mean.

3

Not sure what you mean by “believe.”

I believe in Kwanzaa. That doesn’t mean I celebrate it (same with Christmas).

So far as I know there is no real underlying theology to Kwanzaa – at least in its current form – that is a key to participating in it so I don’t think there is “belief” in that sense.

But I do know people who “believe” that it is a celebration that serves a purpose that they enjoy fulfilling. So in that sense yes.

4

Are all holidays made up out of whole cloth, as Kwanzaa was?

5

Last I checked, it’s based around African harvest celebrations, with a teaching element added in. I suspect it’s as close to actual practice as the American Thanksgiving celebration is to the original Pilgrims’ experience. Plus, American Thanksgiving became a “legitimate” national holiday via the campaigning of an editor of a women’s magazine. Before that there were some sporadic proclamations of such, including (according to the Wiki article) one year where two Thanksgiving Days occurred but neither were in autumn.

The supposed reason for Valentine’s Day was based on one of a number of Valentines who were named saints, and the story was embellished. IIRC “the” St. Valentine is no longer recognized as such by the Catholic Church because his existence seems unlikely.

6

Since I doubt there is a lot of factual information on specific numbers of African-Americans who “take it seriously,” this is probably better suited to IMHO than GQ.

Colibri
General Questions Moderator

7

As to the OP, certainly there are people who celebrate Kwanzaa in the spirit in which it was intended.

Kwanzaa is a synthetic holiday like Esperanto is a synthetic language. I can think of no other cultural holiday that was invented by a single individual rather than being precipitated by a widely experienced event or common belief. But that doesn’t make it invalid.

What does it mean to take it seriously and not just make a point? After all, most holidays make a point, and serve to provide a common cultural experience and perpetuate the culture. If Yom Kippur and Easter don’t make points, I don’t know what does.

Slightly related joke:
Q: Do you believe in spanking children for punishment?
A: *Believe *in it!?! I’ve *seen *it!

8

So, are all holidays made up out of whole cloth?

9

Festivus. It’s gaining in popularity among atheists and others who are less interested in the traditional religious holidays around that time.

10

And, like Esperanto, if enough people pick it up and enjoy it, it will be real, irrespective of its origins.

Many things are consciously created; many others evolve unconsciously; still others were created so long ago that we don’t know whether they were the conscious work of named individuals. If something is useful, it doesn’t matter where it came from; people will use it, and it will live. Is the Korean alphabet any less real because we know who created it and when?

11

I know several people who sincerely believe in Kwanzaa. They buy the candelabra and buy Kwanzaa stamps and I may even receive a card every few years. Some churches I’ve been to may have a special thing for it or something.

I personally do not celebrate it or recognize it as a real holiday. My mother told me it was a joke (meaning something a bunch of people got together and made up, not like a hoax kind of joke) when it first started to get relatively wide stream, so I considered it as such for most of my teenage years. Once I did my own research on the holiday, my findings did not alter my belief in the holiday.

I once had this college-issue planner that had every single holiday imaginable in it. I’d never heard of about 60% of the holidays, mostly Jewish and Muslim, but there were other religious observances as well. I believe all of those holidays are real, and I recognize them as holidays. Kwanzaa…not so much.

12

Well, pretty much.

New Year’s Day – sure it’s a day, and the start of the new year – according to our calendar. But the Roman year started March 1st, the Chinese New Year is in February, etc. Lots of different dates to start a new year. But it’s a common holiday in many cultures.

Martin Luther King Day (and Washington’s Birthday & Lincoln’s Birthday aka President’s Day & Columbus Day etc.) – those were real people, and the dates chosen are generally fairly close to their actual birthdates, so they are not wholly made up. But the celebration is local to the USA – other countries have other heroes that they celebrate.

Passover, Easter, etc. – most cultures have some kind of springtime/planting season celebration. Often linked to their predominant religion. Whether this is based on any reality depends on how much faith you have in Jewish, Christian, etc. religious stories.

Mothers Day (and Fathers Day, Grandparents Day, Secretaries Day, etc.) – basically completely made up & assigned to a particular day to honor a group of people. Or, if you’re cynical, to sell lots of greeting cards, candy, flowers, etc.

Memorial Day – well, obviously, lots of soldiers have died in various wars, so this isn’t completely made up. But the choice of this specific day is pretty arbitrary, and varies in different countries.

Independence Day – specific to USA, based on a real incident in history (but it probably happened on July 2nd, not July 4th). Most countries have some such patriotic holiday, but when in the year varies. But it usually is based on some historic date.

Labor Day – another day just chosen to celebrate working people. So basically made up; no specific reason for the date. In USA it’s at the end of summer; many European countries have it at the start of summer, May 1st.

Veterans Day – well, it’s related to a specific historical incident – used to be called Armistice Day. Many countries have some such celebration, on various days.

Halloween – originally a religious eve celebration. Assignment to this date is pretty arbitrary. Whether it’s made up depends on your belief in Christian religion. But for most people, they don’t even remember the connection to religion – it’s just a holiday.

Thanksgiving – typical fall/harvest celebration, as is common in most agricultural cultures. Supposedly related to a specific semi-historical incident, but may be largely legend.

Christmas, Saturnalia, etc. – typical solstice holiday. Roman one was credited to their god Saturn; Christian version is credited to birth of Christ (though historically that probably occurred in March), etc. Again, whether it’s ‘completely made up’ depends on how much you believe in Saturn, Christ, etc.

So it seems that most cultures have some holiday celebrations. But the specific dates & names given to them are pretty much entirely made up.

13

Heck, we just made up a holiday two years ago: Family Day (scroll down to the section on Ontario).

14

Chanukah is the Jewish Kwanzaa.

Yes, I know it existed as a religious holiday, but it was an exceedingly minor one, and that celebration died out a century ago. Jewish families took the name and the lighting of the Menorah and made up a celebration so that their kids wouldn’t feel left out at Christmastime. It doesn’t even really have a religious origin in the first place (it was more a celebration of a victory).

15

:smack:

Clearly, some are based around events that never happened (even whether or not you believe in the divinity of Jesus and the truthfulness of the Bible), so I’m kind of perplexed as to why Kwanzaa gets the short end of the stick on this one. At least the emphasis is on learning about one’s heritage and other beneficial, noble pursuits, compared to something like Sweetest Day which is almost entirely a “Hallmark holiday” creation - well, technically a candy company creation.

16

Mostly, it is seemingly now just perpetrated by the media and government, in order to look PC.

I have no doubt there are a few sincere celebrants, but the number seems to be insignificant. “Wintereenmas” from Ctrl-Alt-Delete is likely as celebrated.

In fact, from what I have seen the various Pagan holidays of Beltane and Samhain etc are more popularly followed.

17

I think some of you are misinterpreting the ‘made out of whole cloth’ comment. Sure, most religious holidays are entirely arbitrary, but there’s an enormous difference between a holiday that’s developed over the years, and one that’s created consciously. Actually, I think the comparison to Esperanto is especially relevant - they’re both artificial constructs that could potentially be regarded as important and real, but I don’t really know anyone who does.

Any cultural tradition’s value is entirely based on how many people care about it. Christmas is only vaguely Christian anymore, but the fact that so many of us grew up with it, and think it’s important mean it is important. Kwanzaa, as far as I can tell, doesn’t have that going for it. Now, granted, I’m as white as they come, but SharkB8’s post was the first I’ve heard of people taking it seriously. In my world, it’s more on par with Talk Like a Pirate Day than Ramadan. It could be interesting, I guess, or fun (although it really doesn’t have enough pirates), but there’s no emotional aspect, it’s purely intellectual. Nobody’s gonna be disappointed if I don’t throw a Kwanzaa party, or send them a Kwanzaa card.

18

All holidays are created consciously.

19

Hmm. I think of Festivus as a parody of a holiday, but maybe it’s getting traction.

20

Our department gives flu shots, and whenever someone says “I don’t believe in them” I wave a vial at them and say, “seriously, it’s right here!”