{"id":3735,"date":"2010-12-26T06:52:10","date_gmt":"2010-12-26T10:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=3735"},"modified":"2010-12-26T23:41:01","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T03:41:01","slug":"first-fruits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=3735","title":{"rendered":"First Fruits"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Kwanzaa.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3740\" title=\"Kwanzaa\" src=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Kwanzaa.jpg\" alt=\"Kwanzaa\" width=\"441\" height=\"398\" srcset=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Kwanzaa.jpg 700w, https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Kwanzaa-300x270.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 441px) 100vw, 441px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>December 26th is the first of the seven days of Kwanzaa, a festival created in 1966 as a celebration of African cultural and historical heritage. Born of the Civil Rights movement, it was originally proposed as an alternative to Christmas for African-Americans who preferred not to follow the religious traditions of the culture that had uprooted and dispossessed their ancestors. However, for many families it has come to be an additional, rather than a replacement, celebration.<\/p>\n<p>Kwanzaa derives from a Swahili phrase meaning \u201cfirst fruits,\u201d and its creation was inspired by African harvest festivals, but \u201cfruits\u201d carries a larger meaning beyond the literal, encompassing as well the blessings of family, faith, work, and cultural heritage. Each of the seven days has a special theme and is celebrated accordingly, through openly renewed commitment to significant values, storytelling, the exchange of gifts, special foods, and appreciation of traditional African art and handcrafts.<\/p>\n<p>Kwanzaa has been labeled disparagingly an \u201cinvented\u201d festival, but this criticism seems both mean-spirited and short-sighted. Every festival we celebrate was \u201cinvented\u201d at some point as the outward manifestation of a people\u2019s beliefs, hopes, and dreams. Somebody had to be the first to drag an evergreen branch indoors as a reminder of the the eventual return of spring and new life.<\/p>\n<p>This sketch is from the Smithsonian\u2019s wonderful <a href=\"http:\/\/discoverytheater.org\/shows\/dec\/seasons-of-light.shtm\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #339966;\">Seasons of Light at Discovery Theater<\/span><\/a>, which each December describes and dramatizes winter festivals of light from many cultures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>December 26th is the first of the seven days of Kwanzaa, a festival created in 1966 as a celebration of African cultural and historical heritage. Born of the Civil Rights movement, it was originally proposed as an alternative to Christmas for African-Americans who preferred not to follow the religious traditions of the culture that had<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/?p=3735\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[23,17,3,18],"class_list":["post-3735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sketchbook","tag-festival","tag-penink","tag-watercolor","tag-winter"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3735"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3745,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3735\/revisions\/3745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eachdayisacelebration.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}