Kwanzaa lighting at Boathouse Row kicks off holiday

For the second time, the city of Philadelphia joined the Kwanzaa Cooperative to host a lighting ceremony event on the first night of Kwanzaa to celebrate the Boathouse Row lights being lit red, green and black to honor the 52nd anniversary of the cultural holiday.

“Kwanzaa is a part of public space and is part of the multicultural fabric of this country now,” explained Maisha Sullivan-Ongoza of the Kwanzaa Cooperative, a cultural social change organization formed in 1980 at the urging and under the guidance of Kwanzaa’s founder, Maulana Karenga. “Events like this, seeing it (recognized) on top of the PECO building or the (U.S. postage) stamp is recognizing that Black people mean something. We embraced it — which is the ultimate sign of self-determination.”

According to a statement from the city: “The design of the lights will turn the houses into a kinara, the seven candles used in celebrating the festival of Kwanzaa. For the first day of Kwanzaa, one house in the middle of the row will be illuminated in yellow lights only on the roof, representing the middle black candle and its flame, while the rest of the houses will be dark. Each successive evening one more house on Boathouse Row (representing that night’s candle) will be lit beginning with red on the left and ending with green on the right. By the seventh and final day of Kwanzaa, all seven buildings representing the kinara will be lit to reflect the Seven Principles of Kwanzaa.”

The riverside gathering drew about 100 people to help celebrate with prayers and libations for ancestors, as well as those yet to be born.

“There are many different cultures in our community, and, as I said in my remarks, Europeans tried to destroy African culture by stripping it of all of its resources and its people,” Mayor Jim Kenney said. “A lot of hope was lost in the course of human history and we need to find it and remind our children that their past culture is an important part of their life.”

Kwanzaa, which means “first fruits of the harvest” in Swahili, was founded in 1966 by Karenga.

“Kwanzaa from its inception was an instrument of freedom and thus of our freedom struggle. It provides cultural context and content for us to be our African selves, to raise and cultivate cultural and political consciousness about critical issues facing our people, society and the world,” said Karenga in a statement. “It teaches views, values and practices to enable us to return to our own history and culture in all their richness and relevance and empowering ways to increasingly understand and appreciate ourselves, anchor and orient ourselves and self-consciously direct our lives toward good and expansive ends. And in all of this, Kwanzaa challenges our people to involve themselves in the overarching liberating struggle to build the good community, society and world we all want, work and struggle for and deserve.”

The illumination of the lights along Boathouse Row will honor Kwanzaa 2018 through Jan. 1, 2019. Passersby may marvel at the lights from various vantage points, including the Fairmount Water Works, the Fish Ladder on MLK Drive and the Spring Garden Street Bridge.

Karenga will visit the Delaware Valley to celebrate the 52nd anniversary of Kwanzaa on Friday, Dec. 28 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at West Philadelphia High School, 4901 Chestnut St., Philadelphia.

For information regarding Kwanzaa, visit http://www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org.

This article originally appeared in The Philadelphia Tribune.