What is Kwanzaa?

What is Kwanzaa, what is Hanukkah, what's the difference? What do they do on those holidays?Are they the same?

• What's the difference?

• Answer:

  Hannukkah (Chanukah) is an ancient Jewish holiday, older than Christianity Kwanza is a very recent holiday, created by Dr Maulana Karenga in 1966. You probably think they are similar because of the candles. Chanukah is a celebration of a Jewish military victory, and a miracle that happened afterward. Basically, first the Jews had been defeated and their Temple desecrated, but then they fought back, defeated their enemies and took back possession of the temple. They wanted to hold an eight day celebration, but there was only enough consecrated oil to keep the lamps lighted for 1 day. The miracle was that the lamps stayed lit for all the eight days. Chanukah is not a major Jewish holiday, but has become more widely celebrated because it is close to Christmas. Chanukah has always been about ceremonially lighting eight candles for the 8 days of the original miracle. Children were sometimes given small gifts on each day. Now it's a lot more like Christmas, with major presants, family get-together, etc. Kwanza was created during the Civil Rights movement, as a replacement for all the holidays that Africans lost due to slavery. It is a cultural holiday, not a religious one, and is not widely celebrated. It teaches the principles of Unity, Self-determination, Collective work and responsibility, Collective economics, Purpose, Creativity and Faith. Each night they light a different candle and talk about the principle. It's always good to learn about other people's cultures and traditions. I've included a couple of site links below where you can learn even more. Keep asking! http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/article_cdo/aid/102911/jewish/Chanukah-in-a-Nutshell.htm http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org/index.shtml