Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part One

Happy Kwanzaa, Etc. Part One

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade or holiday and at my age I guess I’m easily confused but Kwanzaa really confounds me.

Wikipedia defines that confounding holiday as “a weeklong celebration held in the United States honoring universal African-American heritage and culture, observed from December 26 to January 1 each year. It features activities such as the lighting of a kinara, [a candleabrum very similar to a menorah] and libations, and culminates in a feast and gift giving [which sounds suspiciously like Christmas]. It was created by Maulana Karenga and was first celebrated from December 26, 1966 to January 1, 1967.”

How does one ”celebrate” a fantasy?

Maybe it’s the fact that Mr. Karenga could just sit down one day and decide he would “create” a holiday or that Kwanzaa just happens to coincide with the Christmas season that confounds me. Since he was manufacturing his holiday, anyway, why not choose February which only has Groundhog Day as competiton or August which cries out for something to distinguish it besides heat?

In protest of commercialism, George’s father, Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld” created the holiday of “Festivus,” replete with an aluminum ”Festivus Pole” to be celebrated on December 23rd but everyone, okay, most people, realized Festivus was a joke.

Today, many people take Kwanzaa seriously!

Festivus was more real, and funnier, although I admit that the inclusion of a “traditional” Kwanzaa song at my granddaughter’s holiday concert was pretty amusing. It mostly consisted of two kids listlessly banging on African bougarabou drums as the chorus sang some very forgettable lyrics. I wondered when the “tradition” began. A month ago? Last Tuesday? . . .
(Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=3157)