Kwanzaa
The word “Kwanzaa” is taken from the phrase “matunda ya kwanza,” which means “first fruits” in this language.
What is Swahili?
The date on which Christmas is celebrated in the United States.
What is December 25?
Yule is the celebration of this event in mid/late December.
What is the winter solstice?
Winter solstice is the longest night/shortest day of the year.
Hanukkah is a winter celebration in this religious tradition.
What is Judaism?
St. Lucia is celebrated each year on December 13 for this reason.
What is closeness to the winter solstice?
The winter solstice is the shortest, darkest day of the year. The festival marks the return of light after the darkest part of winter.
Celebrated every year from December 26 through January 1, Kwanzaa is a week of festivities honoring this culture and heritage.
What is African American?
In 1966, Dr. Maulanga Karenga created Kwanzaa to encourage pride within the Black community, as well as connection with African roots after the deadly riots of the Watts Rebellion.
Christmas celebrates this event of great importance to Christians.
What is the birth of Jesus Christ?
Yule is celebrated for this number of days.
What is 12?
Traditional celebrations lasted for 12 days and nights, inspiring the modern song “12 Days of Christmas.”
True or False: Hanukkah is one of the most important days in the Jewish calendar.
What is False?
Hanukkah is a minor festival and does not hold the religious significance of days such as Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover. It is a popular holiday, however, and is widely celebrated.
Name two countries in which St. Lucia’s Day is celebrated.
What are Sweden, Norway, and Swedish speaking areas of Finland, as well as parts of Italy?
(Any two correct answers are acceptable.)
Kwanzaa centers on this number of principles.
What is seven?
The seven principles are umoja (unity), kujichagulia (self-determination), ujima (collective work and responsibility), ujamaa (cooperative economics), nia (purpose), kuumba (creativity), and imani (faith). One principle is celebrated on each day of Kwanzaa.
The tradition of decorating Christmas trees began in the 1500s in this European country.
What is Germany?
Early trees were decorated with apples, nuts, and sweets.
Families burn a large log in the hearth to welcome this back after the shortest day of the year.
What is the warmth and light of the sun?
The eight-night celebration of Hanukkah is also known by this name.
What is the Festival of Lights?
During the festival procession, girls wear a lighted wreath on this part of their body.
What is their head?
According to legend, St. Lucia would secretly bring food to the Christians hiding in Roman catacombs under the city. She would light her way with candles held in a wreath on her head so she could have both hands free to carry things such as food.
True or False: Kwanzaa is a religious celebration only observed by Black people.
What is False?
Although most people who observe Kwanzaa have African roots, people of all races and religions are invited to celebrate. Kwanzaa is a cultural celebration, not a religious one.
True or False: Christmas celebrations were made illegal in England and America for part of the 17th century.
What is True?
In 1644, members of the British government felt that the religious meaning of Christmas had been forgotten, so they banned the holiday festivities for almost 20 years!
This celebratory item, which burns throughout the entire holiday, is also a traditional dessert consisting of sponge cake and icing rolled together.
What is the yule log?
Historically, the log would be chosen carefully, as it needed to be from an oak tree that had been struck by lightning. This is because oak is sacred to Thor, the Norse God of Thunder and Lightning.
Hanukkah celebrates this event.
What is the Maccabees reclaiming the Temple in Jerusalem from the Syrian-Greeks?
After the Maccabee victory, they cleansed and rededicated the temple. As the story goes, they required a holy light to burn inside at all times, but the Jews had only enough oil for one night. Incredibly, the light burned for eight days.
During the procession, candlelight is accompanied by this famous song.
What is “Sankta Lucia”?
The three main colors of Kwanzaa - red, green, and black - represent these things.
What is red, representing struggle; green, representing the land and hope for the future; and black, representing people of African descent?
This country provides the Christmas tree for Trafalgar Square (in London) every year.
What is Norway?
Since 1947, the city of Oslo in Norway has given the tree to London in gratitude for Britain's support during World War II.
True or False: There is overlap between traditions celebrated at Yule and Christmas.
What is True?
Overlapping traditions include decorating inside homes with pine, fir, and/or holly, as well as sharing large feasts with family and friends. In some Germanic languages, the word for Christmas is a variation of Yule.
Latkes, sufganiyot (jelly doughnuts), and apple fritters have something in common with this deep meaning during Hanukkah.
What is being fried in oil?
People fry their food in oil for Hanukkah as a symbol of the miracle oil that burned for eight nights straight.
This baked good is popular during the holiday. In Swedish, it is called “lussekatter.”
What is saffron bread?
A ‘lussekatt’ (directly translated as ‘Lucia cat’), is typically shaped into the letter ‘S’ to look like a curled-up cat, with raisins for decoration to represent a cat’s eyes.