Kwik, It's Kwanzaa!

You say kenora, I say menorah.....

This morning as I hung up my 2026 calendar -- the only difference between this year and last -- I learned that not only is this New Year's Day but it is also the last day of Kwanzaa! OMG! Who knew?  Nobody, that's who. Did you ever once hear anyone say "Happy Kwanzaa" these last few weeks? Me either. 

The holiday was invented in 1966 by an African black separatist (how nice) named Maulana Karenga who believed that Jesus Christ was psychotic and that Christianity was a white religion that black people should shun. 

Some studies suggest that certain racial minority groups, including young Black Americans, may hold more negative views of Jews compared to other demographics, but this does not represent the views of all Black people.

-- Cambridge University Press 

Wait, it gets better. Rather than constructing their own handcrafted candleabra, God forbid a million times they should do something original, Karenga "forcibly removed two branches from a Hanukkah menorah which was then used to hold the seven candles. He called it a kenora.* (I wonder how he came up with that word.)

Karenga said his goal was "to give black people an alternative to the existing holiday of Christmas." So he invented a holiday for black people to celebrate themselves and their history, "rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society." * 

To all the black people reading this, get out there and celebrate yourselves today before it's too late! But please, no rioting.

* Wikipedia