Three dozen students, staff and faculty filled the African-American Resource Room on Dec. 5 for the inaugural Kwanzaa Celebration hosted by the Multicultural Student Council and the African/African-American Studies Program.
The event featured refreshments and music, along with remarks from Leon Williams, the new director of the Multicultural Center.
Student organizers shared the seven principles on which Kwanzaa is celebrated – unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith – and recited the African Pledge.
A brief video introduced guests to some of the holiday customs, including the Kinara (Candle Holder) and the Kikombe cha Umoja (Unity Cup).
For more information on the holiday celebration, visit the link to the right of this page, which is hosted by Kwanzaa founder Maulana Karenga, a professor of Africana studies at the University of California, Long Beach.