SpringSnowflakes: Welcome Kawanzaa December 26 to January 1+Jumping The Broom and a Brave Conductor

Kwanzaa is finally with us. This is our second year semi celebrating it. It is a holiday that is celebrated from December 26 through January 1. It honors African American culture and heritages. Family and friends gather each day to give thanks and exchange gifts called zawadi. It is not an African holiday however but an American one. Kwanzaa is rather new, it was created in 1966. Prior to this many Black people were treated unfairly because of their race. Maulanga Karenga who was an educator and activist created this day. He wanted rebuild pride and strength to areas that experienced the race riots. Kwanzaa is a Swahili word which means "first fruits" which involves the harvest season celebrations. There are seven principles that people celebrating are encouraged to practice:

unity
self-determination (help yourself succeed)
collective work and responsibility ( work as a team)
cooperative economics (share resources)
purpose
creativity
faith

During this time decorations are brought out which usually are a mkeka (traditional woven mats) placed on tables with baskets of fruits and vegetables and one corn (called mahindi) for every child in the family. Food at these parties are usually inspired from Africa suchas shrimp gumbo, fried bananas, sweet potato pie, coconut sweets, and peanut soup. A unity cup called a kikombe cha umoja is also placed on the mats and usually an adult will pour some water/juice onto the ground from it to remember the ancestors. That adult will then pass the cup to each family member encouraging them to take a sip and people fill the air with chanting seven times called harambee which means let's pull together. A candle is light each night and placed on a kinara. These seven candles are called mishumaa saba. There are three red, three green, and one black candle. They each have a symbolic meaning, the black candle means unity and is lite on the first night, the red candles are the past, and the green candle represents the future. The most festive day occurs on December 31 when karamu occurs, everyone sings, dances, plays music, and wears their favourite African-style clothing. As Kwanzaa comes to a close the last day is spent thinking of the new year and how to succeed in becoming what they want to be in the future. Source: https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/celebrations/article/kwanzaa

There are some lovely free pintables to download at the following webpages:

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/blogs/nancy-jang/migrated-files/kwanzaa-principals.pdf
https://www.kidsparkz.com/uploads/5/2/3/4/52340669/kwanzaa_k_is_for_kwanzaa.pdf
https://www.thepurplepumpkinblog.co.uk/free-printable-kwanzaa-word-search-puzzles/

And some great videos to learn from are shared by:

Sesame Street: https://youtu.be/0kV-6qVp98Q
Kids Cartoon: https://youtu.be/-mzce-hBAw8
Kevin's Kwanzaa Children's Book: https://youtu.be/l3Lyii40-G4
My First Kwanzaa by Karen Katz: https://youtu.be/u1HrI4gJerI

As you may have guessed we have a lovely product for this holiday too from a favourite shop for 2.50USD you can have a copy too: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Kwanzaa-Coloring-Pages-Winter-Holidays-Around-the-World-Coloring-Sheets-7520112

We made some crafts suggested from: https://artsycraftsymom.com/10-kwanzaa-crafts-and-activities-for-kids/ and enjoyed some fruits and nuts and shared them with our animal friends on the beginning of this special day. We bought on December 26 from the googleplay app an audiobook read by Jim Girard called The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. It is our first Audiobook and is 13 minutes long. Similar to the Magi couple our funds are a bit low. Traditionally on this day gifts of art, books, and educational items are given to children. We bought the kids history ebook mentioned a bit later in this post and a nice art set earlier for this special day and barron already created a neat look for our mannequin.

Something interesting is we did a snow dance yesterday and it worked isn't that a neat icicle Barron discovered he is so cool!

We found a delightful book on the GooglePlay Books App called A Kid's Guide to African American History by Nancy I. Sanders. It is a treasured ebook of ours already.
It is such a wonderful book it gives suggestions to wear and make a felt Kufi as well as how each day is celebrated: December 26 you greet each other by asking Habari gani? It means what is the news? and on this day you say Umoja. A child lites the black candle.
December 27: Habari gani? On this day you say Kujichagulia. a child lites the black and red candle.
December 28: Habari gani? Is asked and you reply Ujima. A child lites a black, red, and green candle.
December 29: Habari gani? You respond Ujamaa. A black candle, two red candles, and a green candle is lite.
December 30: Habari gani? to which you say Nia. A child lites the black candle, three red candles, and two green candles.
December 31: Habari gani? Today it is answered with Kuumba. A child lites the black candle, three red candles, and two green ones.
January 1: Habari gani? is asked one final time and you reply Imani. The child lites one black candle, three red ones, and three green candles. Everyone also shouts Haram-bee! meaning let's pull together. These are our screenshots from the mentioned book:

We got to thinking of a brave African American Minty Harriet Tubman and how she would have celebrated such a time. Even before this holiday was made she showed the 7 principles that you greet the day with during difficult times. We had a great resource called the underground railway that we purchased for 1.50USD from Teaching to the Middle shop: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/The-Underground-Railroad-Reading-Comprehension-Worksheet-Slavery-Civil-War-3471969

and this free source from HoneyCombCabin on how to locate the north star which helped many slaves guide their way in the evening escape:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Locating-the-North-Star-5188926

From the Underground Railway resource we leant about Jumping the Broom which was a way to be married without a real ceremony as slave marriages were not recognized. Some information we found can be read at: https://www.footnotinghistory.com/home/jumping-the-broom-the-evolution-of-a-wedding-tradition and at this page which discusses a celtic tradition of doing so as well: https://www.celticjewelry.com/celtic-culture/jumping-the-broom

This video is outstanding on Harriet:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Toa8usElpk4 and this on underground railway: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ozz7U0rFGMM Should you like wooden peg dolls (which we admire) this might be a neat (and free) way to enjoy the festivities: https://www.cleverpatch.com.au/ideas/by-occasion/harmony-week/multicultural-people

The following are some pages from some great books we discovered on this brave conductor: