Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Symbols of Kwanzaa

Along with the Seven Principles (Nguzo Saba) and the seven days of Kwanzaa, there are seven symbols or implements that are used in the celebration of the holiday. These seven items are arraigned in an area set up as a Kwanzaa altar or table in the home.



The seven symbols of Kwanzaa are:

Mkeka (m-KAY-kah): The Mat
A mat woven of fabric, raffia, or even paper. The Mkeka is important because the other holiday implements rest upon it. It Symbolizes the experiences, culture, achievements and sacrifices of our ancestors upon which our lives are built.

Kikombe cha Umoja (kee-KOHM-bay cha oo-MOH-jah): The Unity Cup
Representing family and community unity. When the Unity cup filled with water, juice, or wine, a little bit is poured out as reminder and respect for our ancestors. The cup is then passed around and shared with those gathered, with each person taking a sip.

Kinara (kee-NAH-rah): The Candleholder
Representing our African ancestors, the Kinara holds the seven candles that symbolize the Nguzo Saba. The Kinara is placed on the Mkeka and holds the Mishumaa Saba (the seven candles).

Mishumaa Saba (mee-shoo-MAH SAH-ba): The Seven Candles
Seven candles, representing the seven principles of Nguzo Saba, which are placed in the Kwanzaa Kinara. The colors of the candles are red, green, and black which are the colors of the Bendera (or African Flag).

Muhindi (moo-HEEN-dee): The Corn
Represents the children (and future) of the family. One suke (ear) of corn is placed on the Mkeka for each child in the family. If there are no children in the family one suke is still placed on the Mkeka to symbolize the children of the community.

The Muhindi also represents the Native Americans who were the first inhabitants of the land. Without whom there would be no corn, also known as Maize. It is used as acknowledgment and respect of their contribution to the culture and ancestors of the African American.

Zawadi (zah-WAH-dee): Gifts
Kwanzaa gifts given to children that will make them better people. The gifts should always include a book, video, or other educational item that will educate and inform the child. There should also be a gift know as a "heritage symbol". Something to remind the child of glory of the past and the promise of the future. I chose to try to give the kids a gift a day to represent each principal. It's a little difficult but we'll see how it turns out.

Day 7 - Imani



So the fiance came to visit before the holidays and we wanted to celebrate Kwanzaa with him so I asked him to choose a principle he wanted to celebrate and we'd move that Kwanzaa day up in time for his visit. He chose Imani - Faith. Really he chose it because he loooooves Mani to pieces but I think it was a good choice for us all to do together because Faith is the one thing that will help us survive this long distance thing. It went very well. Here is what we did...

The African pieces were sent from my Auntie Paula and I added them to the Kwanzaa table to represent all of us. In between the heads is a patch that says King Alpha Queen Omega that Keno had given me. It was perfect addition. My Kinara is nontraditional and I love how its circular design represents unity to me rather than the regular kind that just goes in a row. I couldn't find green candles that fit so the kids and I used green glitter to make them (creativity "kuumba" hah!). What you can't see here is the goblets we used as our unity cups to sip out of. Keno and i drank from 1 and the kids drank from the other. We poured some out for our ancestors in the cactus outside. I will prob get a plant to use on the table in the future. And that book is my homemade Kwanzaa manual.

Keno chose Harriett Tubman to teach the kids about someone who embodies the meaning of faith. We all read from it - even Mani lol. This was the biography I constructed...

Harriet Tubman
The "Moses" of Her People
The Biblical story of Exodus in which Moses freed the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to freedom in Israel, seemed to repeat when Harriet Tubman freed over 300 blacks from slavery in the South to freedom in the North. For her commendable work she herself was nicknamed "Moses" of her people and like Moses, Harriett Tubman had to have faith in order to accomplish everything she did.
Born into slavery on Maryland's Eastern Shore, Harriet's ancestors had been brought to America in shackles from. Harriet was the 11th child born to Benjamin Ross and Harriet Greene and her given name was Araminta But by the time she was an adult, she was calling herself Harriet.
As was the custom for many slaves, Harriet began working at an early age. When five years old, she was first sent away from home, "loaned out" to another plantation, checking muskrat traps in icy cold rivers. She quickly became too sick to work and was returned, malnourished and suffering from the cold exposure. By the age of 12, she was working as a field hand, plowing and hauling wood. At 13, while defending a fellow slave who tried to run away, her overseer struck her in the head with a two-pound weight. This resulted in recurring narcoleptic seizures, or sleeping spells, that plagued her for the rest of her life.
If Harriet been kindly treated as a slave, she might not have learned to have so much Faith to get through her struggles and to do what she knew was right. Vicious masters and mistresses forced her to perform tasks that were almost beyond human endurance. One mistress, who paid only a meager amount for the hire of young Harriet, expected her to slave night and day. By day, she must clean and cook, and by night rock the little white baby so the mistress could sleep in peace. Should Harriet fall asleep and the baby cry, a lash was at hand and she was frequently whipped. Needless to say, Harriet's body broke down, and she was returned to her owner, exhausted and starving. Her mother nursed her back to health. The hardship served a purpose. She learned to go without food and sleep when she must. This ability stood her in good stead in the long nights when she guided other slaves to freedom. Indeed, she insisted that slave owner cruelty served to prepare her for the rescues that made her name legendary.
In 1844, at about the age of 25, Harriet married John Tubman, a freed slave. She gained permission to marry him from her owners and lived with him in his cabin, but she was required to continue working for her master. When Harriet told John of her dreams of one day gaining her freedom, he told her that she would never be free and, if she tried running away, he would turn her in. Harriet had heard of two large cities where blacks lived free: Philadelphia and New York. She made up her mind to get to one or the other in spite of desperate handicaps—she was penniless and a fugitive of the law. She had no maps, no compass. Her food supply consisted of the small snack she had taken from her cabin. She had never been taught to read or write. There was no one to encourage or support her. Even her husband would sound the alarm the minute he realized that she had run away. All she had was her Faith and God.

Despite the hardships inflicted upon her and the unfairness of them, Harriet used her labors for self discipline and set for herself the goal of escaping to the North. She accomplished this goal in 1849, when alone and on foot she ran away from the plantation in the middle of the night and followed the North Star to free land in Pennsylvania.
She escaped to find herself alone. There was no one to help her, none of her own folk to share her joy. All remained behind in slavery. She came to a solemn resolution: She would make a home for her family in the North and, by the Lord's help, bring them there. "Oh, how I prayed then, lying on the cold, damp ground, 'Oh, dear Lord, I ain't got no friend but you. Come to my help, Lord, for I'm in trouble!'"
For Harriet it was time not to rest and relax but to start working toward the attainment of her lifelong goal—to be used by God to set many of her captive people free. She made 19 return trips to the South and helped deliver at least 300 fellow slaves, boasting "I never lost a passenger." Her guidance of so many to freedom earned her the nickname "Moses."

In 1865, Harriet began caring for wounded black soldiers as the matron of the Colored Hospital at Fortress Monroe, Virginia. She continued helping others after the war. She raised money for freedmen's schools, helped destitute children and continued caring for her parents. In 1868, she transformed her family's home into the Home for Aged and Indigent Colored People. She also lobbied for educational opportunities for freedmen. She believed she had been called by God to help her people

Harriet would not have become a Moses to her people had not God been with her. she learned while young to call upon the Lord for help at any hour of the day and night.


Rion and Keno reading about Hariett Tubman

and then we learned about the meaning of Faith. I asked everyone what Faith meant to them. Rion said worship and Imani said Mani and Happy!! She learned that her name meant faith! This is what we learned

Faith
To have faith is to believe in something or someone, to fully trust, to be so confident that you base your actions on what you believe. To have faith is to be fully convinced of the truthfulness and reliability of that in which you believe.

Faith in God then, is having the kind of trust and confidence in God and in Christ that leads you to commit your whole soul to Him as
"Faith is being sure of what we hope for, and certain of what we do not see." When you have faith, it communicates to you a certain inner knowing that the thing you are hoping for is certainly established, even before you see any material evidence that it has happened.

Faith is a spiritual force. Faith in God is a response to God's Word which moves God to act. Jesus said, "For assuredly I say to you, whoever SAYS to this mountain, 'Be removed and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but BELIEVES that those things he SAYS will be done, he will HAVE whatever he SAYS." Words mixed with the real, pure faith can and will move mountains or any other problem that we face.

Faith in God must be from the heart. It is not merely intellectual. It is spiritual. "For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Faith causes you to know in your heart before you see with your eyes. "For we walk by faith, not by sight." Through faith we can know we have the answer to our prayer before we see anything change in the natural order Jesus said, "Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." . God expects us, even commands us, to believe that our petitions are answered by God AT THE MOMENT WE MAKE THEM. We must believe that the response is immediately sent WHEN we pray. Faith is like the confirmation slip in our hearts that the goods are on the way. We have that confirmation slip instantly from God. We sense it in our hearts. The manifestation of those goods, the answer received, comes later as long as we are patient and do not throw away our confidence.
Living faith always has corresponding actions. We talk what we really believe, and we act according to what we really believe. The heroes of faith like Harriett Tubman were considered faithful because she acted on what God showed her. To live in faith means to do and say what you believe is right, without doubting.

How we celebrated
For our food of the day we (I) made latkes - Rion wants to do a different cultural food each day of kwanzaa ans since Hannukah had just started i thought latkes would be good (we looove latkes) even Keno liked them.


We then lit the kinara and drank from the Unity cups and said Imani and recited the meaning of faith from the Kwanzaa creator - We focus on ways to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle


After that it was time to give our gifts. The bible I wanted to get Rion was not available in stores so I ended up giving him the scrapbook I had started for him because Keno got him a digital camera. The album is an ongoing one he can add pics to as he travels etc. I gave Imani her personalized Kwanzaa book "7 Candles of Kwanzaa" and Keno gave her an id bracelet with her name Imani on it and some cool coloring books. She loved it. The kids made Keno his presents - pokimon cards from Rion and mani made a collage for his room. I gave him a little wooden box from the African store and put a stone inside. The kids and I said our own little prayer for Keno while holding the stone(even Mani closed her little eyes and silently prayed - who knows about what but hey...) and I told him when he has a bad day or bad dreams hold the stone and have faith our prayers for him will make everything ok and release the negative feelings into the stone to return to the box. The activity we were going to do was to rock climb (to show faith in each other) but it was getting late and we were hungry so we just went out to eat instead. It was a good day!


Imani opening her bracelet (ignore the date stamp - ghetto camera)






blowing out the candles