I remember the very first time my family celebrated Kwanzaa. I was little enough to remember the newness of new things without being annoyed by being made to do them by well-meaning parents. We lived in Ewing, NJ at the time and we came to celebrate this new (to me) holiday because my mom had us in this super cute children's group for other Black children who lived in the suburbs. I had never heard of Kwanza before.

Besides the gorgeous African tapestries and the really cool table settings that included what I now know was called a Kinara, I remember loving saying "Habari Gani!" (What's the News?) to someone around me and relishing hearing one of the seven principals back to me like someone had just handed me a sacred treasure. Since today is the first day of Kwanzaa, they would say, "Umoja!"

Cool right?

For context, Kwanzaa is a seven-day African-American cultural celebration created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga after the Watts Riots. Understandably, when Karenga created Kwanzaa, he did so with an energy around the injustices Black people were facing in America at the time. He wanted to create something that was truly ours--something that eschewed capitalist ideals and instead centered African values of excellence, integrity and community.

"The celebration centers around seven principles that are known in the African language of Swahili as Nguzo Saba. A candle is lit to commemorate one principle on each night of the holiday.

The candle holder, called the kinara, holds seven candles of three different colors – red, green and black.

The three red candles represent the struggles that Black communities endured in their fights toward attaining better futures. The three green candles symbolize the future, hope and promise. And the black candle, which is also called the unity candle, represents the people."

READ MORE: Here’s how to celebrate Kwanzaa’s 7 principles during the holiday – NBC4 Washington (nbcwashington.com)

The Proud Family animated series aired an iconic episode of Kwanzaa that still resonated today. You can watch an excerpt of the episode below.

While Kwanzaa is a relatively new holiday, established 57 years ago, roughly 12 million Americans celebrate Kwanzaa around the world. We'll talk more about Kwanzaa tomorrow yes? Today's principal is Umoja (Unity)--which means to strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race.

Habari Gani!