by: Mason Gentry
This time of the year, millions of people around the world celebrate unique holidays and participate in annual traditions.
Three popular holidays in the U.S. during this time of the year are Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Christmas and Hanukkah have been celebrated for thousands of years but Kwanzaa is only about 60 years old.
Dr. Marsh Jones, a history professor at Parkland, provided some history behind these holidays in an interview.
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by a California university professor named Maulana Karenga. In the light of the Los Angeles riots, Karenga recognized the struggle in the African-American community. He created this celebration for the underrepresented people in the country.
Karenga wanted a non-western holiday for the African Americans, so according to Jones, “he decided to celebrate Africa,” and their origins.
He created Kwanzaa which means ‘first fruits’ in Swahili. The Holiday is seven nights, Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. There are seven candles for the seven principles that Dr. Karenga deemed to be the best of African thought. Each night, you light a candle and talk about one of the principles.
Kwanzaa’s seven principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith.
The celebration has gained a lot of attraction, which Jones said many people attribute to the rise of the internet.
About Kwanzaa, Jones said “It certainly was initially associated with the idea that African-Americans should recognize their roots and support them as we fight for civil rights.”
Next on the list of holidays, and traditionally celebrated right before Kwanzaa, is Christmas.
Christmas was originally celebrated as the birthday of Jesus Christ on Dec. 25. To an outsider, the traditions and legends of Christmas may seem unrelated to Christ’s birthday. However, they all have their roots in the religious world.
For example, Santa Claus, who climbs down the chimney, eats cookies and then gives out presents is not the legend of a confused and glutinous thief. Santa Claus is the fictional reiteration of a man named Saint Nicholas. Jones said that he was a Grecian Saint of the Roman Catholic Church who lived in present-day Turkey in the early years AD.
Saint Nicholas is remembered for “giving gifts in a time when he wasn’t allowed to give gifts—or gifts weren’t allowed to be given—to a poor man’s family,” according to Jones.
Throughout the centuries, his name has been adapted to different demographics, cultures and languages to produce the myriad names that are known today such as Saint Nick, Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, Father Noel and so on.
But other countries, especially France, a holiday called Epiphany is celebrated on Jan. 6.
“Epiphany is where they celebrate the coming of the wise men to Jesus, and that’s when they give the gifts,” Jones said.
The infamous Christmas tree is also the product of adaptations over time. According to Jones, this tradition was brought to England by the native German and husband to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, in the mid-1800s. From here, it spread all around the world.
Another holiday celebrated during this time is the Jewish holiday, Hanukkah.
“This is an eight-day tradition that started in the second century BC,” said Jones.
“The Jewish people in Israel were taken over by the Seleucid monarchy,” Jones said. “Which was one of the monarchies that took over the Mediterranean world and India after Alexander the Great died about a hundred years before that.”
Around 168 BC, the monarch demanded that the Jewish people change their worship. So, the Seleucids went to Israel, killed thousands of Jewish people, desecrated their temple by sacrificing pigs in it and set up alters for Greek Gods.
Two years later, the Jewish people were able to reclaim their temple. They purged, or cleansed, their temple, with the help of the Maccabees, to rid it of the Seleucid’s pagan practices.
For this cleansing, candlelight from a menorah was used. They thought that the candle would only have enough oil for a day; However, the menorah burned for 8 days. “That’s why Hanukkah is an eight-day celebration, you light a new lamp every day on the menorah, and you give presents,” Jones said.
