One thing is certain: Black people know how to rejoice when the holidays arrive. The holiday season, whether it’s Kwanzaa, Christmas, or New Year’s, is a time for joy, family, cuisine, and culture.
The variety of customs, the mixing of history and legacy, and the indisputable sense of community that makes these occasions unique are what make Black holiday celebrations so beautiful.
Although there are universal holiday traditions, Black people around the world add their own flavor with heartfelt feasts and cultural rites.
Family, whether biological or adopted, is the center of the holiday season for many Black households.
According to Warren Winston, managing partner of Winston Worldwide, “I believe that in today’s society, the family (unit) has been fractured, and the COVID pandemic caused even more fractures.” Therefore, it’s essential to be able to get together and celebrate the holidays. According to statistics, loneliness causes depression in a large number of people.
His favorite holiday memories are of his wife at the time, his small sons, and his closest friend’s family visiting each other’s homes to celebrate Kwanzaa and Christmas. They would share gifts, laugh, have Christmas dinner, and spend time together.
Kwanzaa, a holiday established in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga to honor African history and legacy, is an integral aspect of Black holiday customs, even though Christmas is widely observed. Kwanzaa, which takes place between December 26 and January 1, celebrates seven principles, or the Nguzo Saba, which individually represent ideals like solidarity, individual autonomy, and group effort and accountability.
Kwanzaa, according to Destiny Polk, creator of the creative activism website Radical Black Girl, is about community connectedness and cultural pride. The finest aspect of the holiday, which her mother introduced to her when she was a youngster, was giving creative gifts like paintings or poems rather than relying on material possessions to demonstrate concern for other people. Polk aspires to inherit her grandmother’s unique gift-making skills, which she used to create handcrafted presents for her own family over the holidays.
Building community is a fresh idea every day [during Kwanzaa], she remarked. a festival that truly enables the individual to celebrate their history and culture in a comprehensive way.
The significance of paying respect to ancestors is another major topic during the holiday season. Many Black families use the holidays as an opportunity to share the knowledge of the past and to consider the hardships and victories of their ancestors.
Celebrating the ancestors
Christmas had a significant position in Black families’ life, particularly during enslavement, according to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Documenting the American South project. For Black people who were enslaved, the holiday season was an important aspect of their cultural survival and resilience, even though it was not a time of pure joy for everyone. Slaveholders occasionally permitted their enslaved employees to take short breaks and unwind during the Christmas season. During this time, slaves frequently reconnected with relatives, even those who lived on different farms. Through food, music, and storytelling, slaves were also able to commemorate their common ancestry and show their unity during this time.
Small acts of resistance also became common throughout Christmas. Using travel tickets or the relaxation of restrictions, several enslaved individuals took advantage of the occasion to break free.For instance, Harriet Tubman used the holiday travel allowances to give her brothers a head start in their escape at Christmas. Christmas came to represent hope for spiritual and, finally, physical liberation for many. The custom of celebrating together despite adversity set the foundation for the cultural, family-oriented festivities we value today.
Since it’s all we have, it’s critical to honor and preserve our common customs over the holidays. Fort Bend County Commissioner Dexter McCoy stated that we will lose it if we do not pass it on to our children. Because our community has been divided and shattered throughout our history in America, we emphasize the value of community throughout the holiday season.
December is a month full of celebrations that honor Black people’s cultural heritage and unity worldwide in the Black diaspora.
According to Chukwudi Nnali, a project engineer in the Houston region, his parents, who are Nigerian-born, embraced traditional Nigerian customs including dressing in vibrant traditional attire, visiting different families, and cooking and eating traditional meals.
He claimed that [this goes along] with Christmas trees and other American customs. My folks still don’t understand why they put up a Christmas tree. We have the best of both worlds, but things like that are very Western.
The family, which is based on kinship, marriage, and other relational elements, is the basic social unit in Africa. It is expected of family members to help one another out financially, emotionally, and socially in order to promote the group’s wellbeing.
The level of individuality in the United States is astounding. Family is highly important in our culture. “I’ll have to pass that down,” Nnali stated. Christmas is always centered around the family, even when it’s celebrated in Nigeria.
Similar experiences to Nnali’s are also shared by filmmaker and creative director Bosun Alabi. His mother giving him banga, or fireworks, in his Nigerian birthplace is his best Christmas memory.
I wish we did more of this, he remarked, even though it’s not something we do in America. Given the large number of people in the diaspora, why not express our culture?
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