Does anyone in the US really celebrate Kwanzaa?

Baloney

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Baloney
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Being that Kwanzaa is meant to honor African-American heritage and culture, I thought to ask around about its observance. However, all of the ethnically-"Black" folks I know are 1st or 2nd generation Americans, and none of them celebrate Kwanzaa. The holiday is taught as one of the observed winter season holidays at my son's primary school, but I didn't see a lot of observance around where I live (near Washington, DC).

I'm not trying ruffle feathers here: just curious as to whether anyone celebrates the holiday to any extent more than Americans observe Boxing Day (which is to say, it's noted but not celebrated).

Thanks!
 
I can only say that when we set up for all the appropriate December holidays at one of the schools where I ran the media center, it was quite difficult finding Kwanzaa items and no one checked out materials about it. That's my total input. I do tend to suspect you are right though - based on that limited experience.
 
Baloney said:
Being that Kwanzaa is meant to honor African-American heritage and culture, I thought to ask around about its observance. However, all of the ethnically-"Black" folks I know are 1st or 2nd generation Americans, and none of them celebrate Kwanzaa. The holiday is taught as one of the observed winter season holidays at my son's primary school, but I didn't see a lot of observance around where I live (near Washington, DC).

I'm not trying ruffle feathers here: just curious as to whether anyone celebrates the holiday to any extent more than Americans observe Boxing Day (which is to say, it's noted but not celebrated).

Thanks!
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No one that I know of. I get the feeling it is fading away. You don't hear anywhere near as much about it than you did even 5-10 years ago.

ETA: From Wiki -

According to Keith Mayes, the author of Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition, the popularity within the US has "leveled off" as the black power movement there has declined, and now between half and two million people celebrate Kwanzaa in the US, or between one and five percent of African Americans.
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I know of one. When I referred to it as not really a holiday, she told me a story demonstrating not only that she goes through the whole act at home, but also that she had done so enough times before for her son to be able to recite the script about each day's theme himself. (I think he was 6 or 7 at the time.) I immediately thought of the Costanzas on "Seinfeld".

It should be noted, though, that no matter what you might think typical black Americans are like, she's not it. She tends to drift from one religious/philosophical/moral system to another. She was raised Baptist, called herself a Muslim when I met her, and then, soon after I asked how someone who doesn't believe in the Pillars of Islam could be a Muslim, switched to Baha'i... but her description of how/why any of the above suit her never sounded like much more than vague deism plus some stuff about the importance of finding the right "sense of community" through spiritualism... and she's also defended prayer to any/all of the above gods based on the way the universe is said to work in "The Secret" and/or as a psychological/mental aid to one's self... the latter of which is also how she defended astrology even after saying she accepted a failed test as proof that it didn't work, having believed it before... and she said she believes in some kind of vague concept of natural spirits or (guardian?) angels... and she's said some other stuff that sounded like it came from Christian-provoking feminist modern pseudo-Wicca. She's also done a few things that there seemed to be no reason for except that they were supposedly the black/"African" thing to do, like using ancient-Egypt-themed avatars (and objecting when it was pointed out that the ancient Egyptians weren't black) and naming her son after a string of letters that isn't really a name.
 
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Delvo said:
It should be noted, though, that no matter what you might think typical black Americans are like, she's not it. She tends to drift from one religious/philosophical/moral system to another. She was raised Baptist, called herself a Muslim when I met her, and then, soon after I asked how someone who doesn't believe in the Pillars of Islam could be a Muslim, switched to Baha'i... but her description of how/why any of the above suit her never sounded like much more than vague deism plus some stuff about the importance of finding the right "sense of community" through spiritualism... and she's also defended prayer to any/all of the above gods based on the way the universe is said to work in "The Secret" and/or as a psychological/mental aid to one's self... the latter of which is also how she defended astrology even after saying she accepted a failed test as proof that it didn't work, having believed it before... and she said she believes in some kind of vague concept of natural spirits or (guardian?) angels... and she's said some other stuff that sounded like it came from Christian-provoking feminist modern pseudo-Wicca. She's also done a few things that there seemed to be no reason for except that they were supposedly the black/"African" thing to do, like using ancient-Egypt-themed avatars (and objecting when it was pointed out that the ancient Egyptians weren't black) and naming her son after a string of letters that isn't really a name.
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This is the first paragraph I've ever seen that's actually parseable by the fake speed reading technique.

She...tends to drift...Baptist...calls herself Muslim...Pillars of Islam...Baha'i...deism...sense of community...spiritualism...The Secret...astrology...

Well, you get the picture. Try it yourself, finish it out! :)

Thank you, sir! The description of her came through loud and clear.
 
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I have never known 1 person IRL who celebrates it. The supermarket here makes some tacky Kwanzaa cakes and they are marked as day old the next day--apparently no one buys them.

I've always had the impression the holiday was a nonsensical mish-mash of various Africanesque American-made themes and traditions.

This thread would not be complete without a Sandra Lee honorable mention.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled thread.
 
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fuelair said:
I can only say that when we set up for all the appropriate December holidays at one of the schools where I ran the media center, it was quite difficult finding Kwanzaa items and no one checked out materials about it. That's my total input. I do tend to suspect you are right though - based on that limited experience.
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The Central Scrutinizer said:
No one that I know of. I get the feeling it is fading away. You don't hear anywhere near as much about it than you did even 5-10 years ago.
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This is what I was suspecting too. It's sad to me to see a reason for celebration to begin falling to the wayside, as I look favorably upon any uplifting excuse to have a party.

[edit: I guess what I'm saying is: I would like an more days off work in December.]
 
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There are some communities where it's stronger than others. Frankly, I don't think many people on this forum are particularly close to the communities where it's more widespread.

I don't get the argument that it's not a "real holiday." How is it any less "real" than any other holiday?
 
Cleon said:
I don't get the argument that it's not a "real holiday." How is it any less "real" than any other holiday?
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Cleon, I'm definitely not arguing against it's status as a "real" holiday, but I can give an example of how holidays could be described as "more real" (not necessarily more legitimate) than another:

Christmas Day (Dec 25) is a holiday representing the day the Christian Jesus was born, where the day selected does not accurately represent the actual day Jesus was born; Newton Day (Dec 25) is holiday representing the day the Isaac Newton was born, where the day selected does accurately represent the actual day Isaac Newton was born. Thus you could argue that Newton Day is "more real" than "Christmas Day."

I'm not sure how Boxing Day compares to Kwanzaa using that line of reasoning, though.
 
Baloney said:
It's sad to me to see a reason for celebration to begin falling to the wayside, as I look favorably upon any uplifting excuse to have a party.
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That was probably Kwanzaa's downfall right there. It's all positive, happy stuff, which paradoxically exists only for the purpose of trying to isolate black people from the others around them, and the only motivation for that is anger, hatred, and resentment. The problem is that those who want to cut themselves off like that usually aren't into anything positive/uplifting, and those who want positive/uplifting usually aren't interested in self-segregation.
 
Caper said:
It's KFC's busiest week. :p
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Although I understand this is an attempt at a racialist joke you may be interested to know that Christmas-time is KFC's busiest week in Japan.

If you don't pre-order you will not get any fried chicken and that is a fact!
 
angrysoba said:
Although I understand this is an attempt at a racialist joke you may be interested to know that Christmas-time is KFC's busiest week in Japan.

If you don't pre-order you will not get any fried chicken and that is a fact!
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Every time I learn a new bit of trivia about Japan, I find myself wondering if nuking Japan is what made it this way, or if nuking Japan saved the world from what might have been. Every. Single. Time.

This is not a racialist commentary, it is a culturalist commentary. It seems to me that Japanese culture is normal and orthogonal to the mainstream of globalized culture.
 
No one I know celebrates Kwanza, just Xmas.

Why isn't the thread title in ebonics?
 
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