What is Kwanzaa?

Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates family, community and culture. It is observed from December 26 through January 1 and its origins may be found in the first harvest celebrations of Africa, from which this holiday takes its name. Kwanzaa is derived from the phrase, "matunda ya kwanza," which means "first fruits" in Swahili, a Pan-African tongue that is the most widely spoken language of Africa. The first-fruits celebrations are recorded in African history dating back to Ancient Egypt and Nubia, with references, both ancient and modern, appearing in other classical African civilizations, such as Ashantiland and Yorubaland, and among societies as large as empires...Swaziland, for example...and smaller groups like the Matabele.
Kwanzaa was conceived and developed in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Ron Karenga, an author and scholar-activist who stresses the need to preserve, continually revitalize and promote African American culture. Dr. Karenga is a professor with the Department of Black Studies at California State University in Long Beach. Kwanzaa was first celebrated on December 26, 1966 and having been introduced in the midst of the Black Freedom Movement of the mid-60s, reflects a concern for cultural groundedness in thought and practice. Unity and self-determination are also associated qualities. Primarily created to reaffirm and restore rootedness in African culture, this celebration is an expression of recovery and reconstruction of African culture. The founding organization of Kwanzaa is the Organization Us, which is the authoritative keeper of its tradition. The second function of this holiday is to serve as a regular communal celebration to reinforce and reaffirm the bonds between the African people. A third purpose of Kwanzaa is to introduce and reinforce the "Nguzo Saba" (also known as the "Seven Principles"), representative of communitarian African values, which are: (1) Umoja or Unity; (2) Kujichagulia or Self-Determination; (3) Ujima or Collective Work and Responsibility; (4) Ujamaa or Cooperative Economics; (5) Nia or Purpose; (6) Kuumba or Creativity; and (7) Imani or Faith. Kwanzaa also builds upon the five fundamental activities of Continental African first-fruits rituals, which are as follows:

Ingathering: A time of ingathering of the people...of family, friends and community...in order to reaffirm the bonds between them.
Reverence: A time of special reverence for the creator and creation in thanks and respect for the blessings, bountifulness and beauty of creation.
Commemoration: A time for commemoration of the past in pursuit of its lessons and in honor of its models of human excellence...the ancestors...all the people and actions that have come before.
Recommitment: A time of recommitment to the highest cultural ideals...both personal and communal...in an ongoing effort to always bring forth the best of African cultural thought and practice.
Celebration: A time for celebration of the good...the good life and of existence itself...the good of family, community and culture...the good of the awesome and the ordinary...in other words, a celebration of the good in all its manifestations on the Earth.