MaryAnne Law, Families First

QUESTION:

Would you explain Kwanzaa?

ANSWER: During the last week of December, many Black families and communities observe Kwanzaa, a seven-day celebration of values that a community needs to be strong and thrive. Each day during Kwanzaa focuses on one of these principles and reminds celebrants to recommit to that value: &8220;Umoja (unity), to strive for and maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race.

Kujichagulia (self-determination), to define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. Ujima (collective work and responsibility), to build and maintain our community together and make our brothers&8217; and sisters&8217; 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.

And imani (faith), to believe with all our heart in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.&8221;

These values contain many universal principles for building strong communities. The Kwanzaa celebration ends on New Year&8217;s Day, the Day of Meditation.

Many people already spend New Year&8217;s Day thinking about how they can resolve to improve themselves during the next year. In the Kwanzaa tradition, we would be thinking about improving our communities together in the coming year.

During a traditional Kwanzaa celebration, ears of corn are laid on a straw mat. The mat symbolizes African peoples&8217; history and traditions, and the corn symbolizes children and the future.

Families place one ear of corn on the mat for each child in the household, but they&8217;re instructed to put at least two ears down even if they don&8217;t have children, because in African tradition every adult is considered a parent to every child in the community. We periodically talk about this belief; Kwanzaa is a week of celebration that helps a community focus on the belief together annually.

If you would like to talk with a parenting specialist about the challenges in raising children, call the toll-free Parent WarmLine at 1-888-584-2204/L&8217;nea de Apoyo at 877-434-9528. For free emergency child care call Crisis Nursery at 1-877-434-9599.

Check out www.familiesandcommunities.org.

Maryanne Law is the executive director of the Parenting Resource Center in Austin.