(We write about the diversity of the holidays we celebrate as MPUUC People of Color)

Spring Festival Couplets

Spring Festival Couplets, Chunlian in Chinese, is also known as Spring Couplets or Chinese New Year Couplets. The couplets are pairs of poetry lines. They the most common and important custom when celebrating Chinese New Year. This tradition is widely kept in both modern cities and rural areas of China.

With black or golden characters written on red paper, Spring Festival Couplets are vertically pasted on both sides of the front door, and a four-character horizontal scroll is affixed above the doorframe. Pasting couplets expresses people’s delight in the festival and wishes for a better life in the coming year.

The first line (left scroll) and the second line (right scroll) have parallel structures and an equal number of characters, but the meanings are antithetical although related. There must be a one-to-one correspondence between the two lines. The tone pattern is emphasized, but rhythm is not important. The horizontal scroll, the four-character phrase, sums up the two lines’ meaning. Here’s an example:

Spring Couplets originated from Taofu, an inscription on boards made from peach trees in the Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 BC). According to the legend, in the ghost world a rooster perching in a big peach tree will crow at dawn to call all the traveling ghosts back. In front of the entrance of the dark world, there are two guards named Shentu and Yulei. If the ghosts harm any people at night, the guards will kill them for the tiger’s breakfast. People believed that peach trees can scare and subdue evil things, so they hung peach boards in front of the doors with the guards’ names written or inscribed on them.

During the Song Dynasty (960–1279 AD), the wood board was replaced by paper, and people focused more on bright wishes for the future. The custom became popular in the  Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 AD). When the Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang traveled for inspection, he found those pairs of scrolls interesting. In order to advocate and promote this cultural activity, he ordered all household to paste the scrolls during the Chinese New Year. This tradition continues today.
— I. X.

Other Celebrations- Written by Mission Peak UU Congregation Members

Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa is a seven-day celebration from December 26 to January 1. It was started 1966 by Maulana Karenga,  a professor of Africana studies at California State.

The word kwanzaa is an adaptation of the Swahili word kwanza, meaning first. The holiday derives from the First Fruits celebrations of southern Africa, where the first fruits of the harvest were given to God in thanks for abundance.

Families and other participants light red, black and green candles. One candle is lit each day of the celebration and the principle of the day is discussed.  One of the seven principles of Kwanzaa is celebrated on each of the seven days:

• unity (umoja),
• self-determination (kujichagulia),
• collective responsibility (ujima),
• cooperative economics (ujamaa),
• purpose (nia),
• creativity (kuumba),
• faith (imani).

The 7 symbols of Kwanzaa are: 

• mazeo – fruit vegetables or nuts
• Mkeka – the mat which represents African foundation and traditions 
• Kinara- the candle holder which represents African ancestors and diaspora
• Mishumaa- the seven candles which are red back and green and represent the people, the land, and the struggle
• Muhindi-  corn or maize represents African children and the promise of their future
• Kikombe cha Umoja- the Unity Cup symbolizes unity of family and community
• Zawadi – the gifts given to educate the children and enhance their knowledge about their heritage such as books and educational toys.

My family celebrates principles of Kwanzaa and self-determination (kujichagulia) by remembering black owned businesses. There is more information in the links below.

100+ Black owned businesses 

https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/black-owned-business-guide-ncna1258948

Etsy black owned businesses

https://www.etsy.com/market/

Forbes: Why It’s Crucial To Support Black-Owned Businesses On Both Corporate, Consumer Levels

K.B. 

Safe Place is sponsored by the People of Color Affinity Group at Mission Peak Unitarian Universalist Congregation. Contributions are welcomed from Black, Indigenous and People of Color in the congregation. For more information email safespace@mpuuc.org.

Juneteenth Freedom Day

Juneteenth or Jubilee Day celebrates the emancipation of those who were enslaved in our country. Specifically, it commemorates the date that the word of emancipation was finally delivered to a group of enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, 2½ years after they had been declared free by President Abraham Lincoln.

On June 19th 1865, Major General Gordon Granger and his troop of Union soldiers, arrived in Galveston, Texas with news that the Civil War had ended and that the slaves were now free. Previously, there were too few Union troops to enforce President Lincoln’s Executive Order. General Lee’s surrender in April of 1865 and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment finally allowed for the enforcement slave liberation and General Order Number 3 which read:
“The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”
(http://juneteenth.com/history.htm)

The celebration of June 19th was called “Juneteenth.” In the past, many descendants of slaves in Texas traveled back to Galveston on at this time of year to commemorate emancipation.

On January 1, 1980, Al Edwards, an African American state legislator, succeeded in his efforts to make Juneteenth an official state holiday in Texas. Subsequently, the has celebration spread to states across America. The day was recognized as a federal holiday on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law.

Popular foods to celebrate Juneteenth include barbecue and strawberry soda.

My family celebrates by honoring our ancestors, their strength, and the debt we owe to them.

— Contributed by Kathi B.

Indigenous Peoples Day

My family owns land on the East Coast. It has very little monetary value and the taxes are very low. However, in the traditions of my family, the land is how we define ourselves. We are the families of this particular land, in this particular location. Our extended families have lived in lands adjacent to each other for many generations. Our family stories are stories of where the crops grew, the stream was that nourished the land, families were located, and our ancestors are buried.

If we lose our land we lose a part of ourselves. The lands of many Indigenous people have been taken away. We desperately hold onto the land that we have because it is who we are.

We are proud that our Mission Peak UU Congregation has acknowledged our debt to the Indigenous people whose land we occupy and has voted to pay reparations.

We celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day and the lands of all Indigenous people.

– KB

Diwali

Diwali, or Dipawali, is India’s biggest and most important holiday of the year. … In northern India, Hindus celebrate the story of King Rama’s return to Ayodhya after he defeated Ravana by lighting rows of clay lamps. Southern India celebrates it as the day that Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura. But the holiday is also celebrated by Jains, Sikhs, and Buddhist, who all have their own origin stories for the significance of the spiritual “victory of light over darkness, good over evil, and knowledge over ignorance”.

At our house, previously, Evie’s father Rohit would lead the festival. We begin a few days ahead of time by buying certain ingredients to use for the Pooja, or prayer ceremony. These include: red silk thread, a stick of incense, tiny Terracotta lamps for each room in the house, fresh flowers, parched rice (like unflavored rice crispies), store-bought Indian sweets (such as gulab jamun, ladoo, barfi, jalebi, or ras malai), fresh fruit, and red pigment for making tikka on the practitioners’ foreheads. 

The first part of the celebration is the chanting/singing of a summary of the epic, and the family and friends follow the leader in this call-and-response litany. A large platter with all the offerings to the icons in the small temple or prayer center is prepared and intended for the Diwali Gods and Goddesses (those who are mentioned in the Ramayana). The terracotta lamps are filled with mustard oil and small cotton wicks, and lit. Then each participant receives a new bracelet from the red silk thread, a tikka on their forehead, and goes up to the temple to sweep their hands over the incense and toward their heads, to “take in” the sacred smoke. Once the pooja is complete, we distribute the lamps to each room in the house and then enjoy the fruits and sweets from the big platter. 

This year, I’ll be celebrating only with Evalyn and my brother Steven and one of Evie’s favorite preschool teachers who is also Indian and Hindu. I’ll leave all the prayers and that portion of the ceremony up to Rohit. We will instead focus on more secular traditions like the gorgeous colored-powder designs called Rangoli that children especially delight in making. Rohit was never interested, so it will be a new tradition I’m introducing with the help of our preschool teacher friend, who will also be bringing some traditional homemade sweets over for us to enjoy! With her help, I will have a very small little prayer ceremony in English and then we will light the reusable candle lamps I bought this year, so it will, again, be a bit different than what Rohit does. Evalyn will get the best of both versions of Diwali, Christmas, and Easter holidays by celebrating it differently at each of her homes with each of her families. 

There are many ways to celebrate Diwali, and each region and each family have their own traditions. Ask your Indian and Hindu friends how they celebrate to learn more!

• Wikipedia tells us: Jains celebrate “Mahavira Nirvana Divas”, the physical death and final nirvana of Mahavira, 24th tirthankara (spiritual saviour/guru). Sikhs celebrate “Bandi Chhor Divas” in remembrance of the release of Guru Hargobind from the Gwalior Fort prison by the Mughal emperor, Jahangir, and the day he arrived at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Diwali is not a festival for most Buddhists, with the exception of the Newar people of Nepal who revere various deities in the Vajrayana Buddhism and celebrate Diwali by offering prayers to Lakshmi, also a Hindu Goddess, of wealth and beauty. 

As North-Indian Hindu Punjabi’s, our family celebrates Diwali as the final portion of the epic Poem, the Ramayana, about Prince Ram and his wife, Princess Sita, in exile due to a wicked step-mother tricking their father, the King. A lovely kid-friendly cartoon can be found here: https://mocomi.com/diwali/

The Ramayana epic is also a main feature of the book/film A Little Princess (by the same author as A Secret Garden).

While banished and out in the forest, a Demoness (who is sister to Demon King Ravan) falls in love with Prince Rama and tries to seduce him. He resists her advances and cuts off her nose. In retaliation and revenge, Ravana kidnaps Princess Sita and takes her to his kingdom in Lanka. As they hunt for the trail to track Princess Sita, Lord Rama and his brother Lakshman encounter the monkey tribes led by the monkey God, Hanuman. Hanuman becomes the general and secret scout of Lord Rama’s army of monkeys and bears. Hanuman finds Sita and brings her the good news that Lord Rama and his army are on their way to fight the war and set her free. 

The heroic warriors successfully complete their mission, win the war, and set Princess Sita free. They are able to then return victorious to their own kingdom and reclaim their thrones. As they are winding their way through the kingdom to the palace, the entire nation lights up their homes with lamps to celebrate their return. It is this “lighting up the kingdom” from the heroes’ epic triumph over Evil and rescuing of the princess that we celebrate each year at Diwali.

 We begin a few days ahead of time by buying certain ingredients to use for the Pooja, or prayer ceremony. These include: red silk thread, a stick of incense, tiny Terracotta lamps 🪔 for each room in the house, fresh flowers, parched rice (like unflavored rice crispies), Indian sweets (such as gulab jamun, ladoo, barfi, jalebi, or ras malai), fresh fruit, and red pigment for making tikka on the practitioners’ foreheads. 

The first part of the celebration is the chanting/singing of a summary of the epic, and the family and friends follow the leader in this call-and-response litany. A large platter with all the offerings to the icons in the small temple or prayer center is prepared and intended for the Diwali Gods and Goddesses (those who are mentioned in the Ramayana). The terracotta lamps are filled with mustard oil and small cotton wicks, and lit. Then each participant receives a new bracelet from the red silk thread, a tikka on their forehead, and goes up to the temple to sweep their hands over the incense and toward their heads, to “take in” the sacred smoke. Once the pooja is complete, we distribute the lamps to each room in the house and then enjoy the fruits and sweets from the big platter. 

There are many ways to celebrate Diwali, and each region and each family have their own traditions. Ask your Indian and Hindu friends how they celebrate to learn more! 

~ Rebekah Troxler Dhand and Evalyn

LOVING DAY

Loving Day, celebrated June 12, is an important day to my family. It is observed by many Americans who stand up for racial justice. During my childhood, it was a painful experience to find out that some friends and family were not considered legally married because many states did not recognize their interracial unions. Mildred and Richard Loving helped change these hurtful laws. They appealed their case to the Supreme Court, which overturned miscegenation laws in the United States. My husband and I light our chalice to honor “the inherent worth and dignity of all people” as we remember the Lovings.

                                                                                                — submitted by K.B.