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Kwanzaa will be celebrated starting Monday, with local churches sharing community events.
Created in 1966 by Maulana Ron Karenga, Kwanzaa is an African-American and Pan-African holiday that celebrates history, values, family, community and culture.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many events in the Youngstown and Warren areas were canceled, but some have returned for the seven-day celebration this year. Among them:
• Monday, 6 p.m. -- New Bethel Baptist Church, 1507 Hillman St., Youngstown. The event will include music, dancing and cultural expression featuring the Harambee Youth Organization. The event is sponsored by the church and Harambee of Youngstown Inc. Pastor is the Rev. Kenneth Simon.
• Thursday, 5 p.m. -- Progressive Baptist Church, 2258 Colonial St. SE, Warren. The event will include the Harambee Youth Organization and be sponsored by the church. Pastor is the Rev. Jeff Stanford.
Both events can be viewed on the churches' Facebook pages. Event organizers said all other nights should be celebrated by families at home.
Event organizers said due to the still existing pandemic, COVID-19 safety procedures will be followed, which include taking temperatures, wearing masks and social distancing.
The Karamu community feast will not be held this year nor will there be African-American vendors.
Kwanzaa is observed Monday to Jan. 1, with a different principle each day, culminating in a feast and gift-giving. Kwanzaa celebrates what its founder called the seven principles of Kwanzaa, or Nguzo Saba (originally Nguzu Saba -- the seven principles of African heritage). They were developed in 1965, a year before Kwanzaa itself.
These seven principles are all Swahili words, and together comprise the Kawaida or "common" philosophy, a synthesis of nationalist, pan-Africanist and socialist values.
Each of the seven days of Kwanzaa is dedicated to one of the principles:
• Umoja (unity): To strive for and to maintain unity in the family and community;
• Kujichagulia (self-determination): To define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves;
• Ujima (collective work and responsibility): To build and maintain community together, and make brothers' and sisters' problems our problems and to solve them together;
• Ujamaa (cooperative economics): To build and maintain our own stores, shop, 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;
• Imani (faith): To believe with all our hearts in our people, our parents, our teachers, our leaders and the righteousness and victory of our struggle.