Looks like something like this has been posted in other wins but maybe not here:
Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by radical Black activist Ron Karenga, a felon convicted of assault and false imprisonment after he tortured two women.
https://www.conservapedia.com/Kwanzaa
During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said that it was meant to be an "oppositional alternative" to Christmas.[6] However, as Kwanzaa gained mainstream adherents, Karenga altered his position so that practicing Christians would not be alienated, then stating in the 1997 Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community, and Culture, "Kwanzaa was not created to give people an alternative to their own religion or religious holiday."
https://infogalactic.com/info/Kwanzaa
For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of such holidays also underscored an essential premise that "you must have a cultural revolution before before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose and direction."[5]
So it was intentionally created as kind of anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-Western culture kind of tradition. But in some ways I imagine it's been stripped of that original intent, or I imagine a lot of people who do keep up the tradition probably don't care about this philosophy explicitly (although they may do so implicitly) - although probably some others do.
What do you think of the history of Kwanzaa and what it is today?
Well, coincidentally, I found myself looking up Kwanzaa recipes today. If we skip Sandra Lee's infamous Kwanzaa cake decorated with corn nuts, the Kwanzaa recipes look a lot like southern cooking with a few African dishes such as peanut soup for added spice, and is intended to be a sort of harvest/first fruits festival.
There are seven principles to ponder to go with the 7 days Dec. 26-Jan.1, and 7 candles:
The following from Wiki:
Umoja (Unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.
Kujichagulia (Self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves.
Ujima (Collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together.
Ujamaa (Cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shops, and other businesses and to profit from them together.
Nia (Purpose): To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness.
Kuumba (Creativity): To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.
Imani (Faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders, and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.
During the early years of Kwanzaa, Karenga said it was meant to be an alternative to Christmas. He believed Jesus was psychotic and Christianity was a "White" religion that Black people should shun.
To popularize his self-made festival, he later softened his stance so that Christians could celebrate it.
I have a feeling Mr. Karenga was a Communist.