UU Kwanzaa - An Annual Headache
I’ve said it once, I’ll say it a million times.
Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, having been founded with the intention of celebrating a very specific culture in a secular manner. The only reason that Unitarian Universalist congregations celebrate Kwanzaa is to appear to be diverse communities. In my view, and I’m not alone, treating Kwanzaa as the “Black Christmas” is insulting to the African-American community, to our Unitarian Universalist principles, and to the very idea of diversity.
I’m happy to note that my home congregation has finally stopped designating the Sunday after Christmas as the Kwanzaa service.
Here’s some links, if you’re interested:
“Finally, it is important to note Kwanzaa is a cultural holiday, not a religious one, thus available to and practiced by Africans of all religious faiths who come together based on the rich, ancient and varied common ground of their Africanness.” - Official Kwanzaa Website, maintained by the founder of the holiday
“Kwanzaa is neither political nor religious and despite some misconceptions, is not a substitute for Christmas. It is simply a time of reaffirming African-American people, their ancestors and culture.” - The International Kwanzaa Exchange
Comment by juffie
December 16, 2006 @ 10:53 pm
Either/or secular/religious cultural/religious doesn’t really get there for me. Like to think something can be cultural and spiritual — though not religious in the sense of belonging to one creed or another. As for UUs celebrating Kwanzaa - it’s kind of like “wanting more people of color to belong to our congregation”. Feels a bit “vulture-y” … it’s one thing to want more people of color to belong to your UU society because you (white Caucasian UUs) want to prove to yourselves how “unprejudiced” and welcoming you are. Quite another thing entirely to actually want your society’s message and actions to be of some spiritual use to as many people as possible, open to being changed by those new people who come in, and eventually maybe even relevant to the needs and desires of people of color among others.