Typically, it's this time of year, when Afro-Americans or black people, living in America, generally speaking, ..are asked if we will be celebrating Kwanzaa, this holiday season.
While I don't, ..some of us have welcomed into our Christmas traditions, musings on the Sky Father and King of the White Cloth, Obatala, who, when the world began, ..climbed down from Heaven on a golden chain, into a giant tree, to bring mankind the divine gifts we would need to live and thrive, on Earth. While many West Africans, at home and abroad, honor the King of the White Cloth with more formal traditions, like the festivals coming up in January, the rest of us carry on these traditions, very simply.
On Christmas Eve, after the children were put away to sleep, we left some milk and FRIED CHICKEN, near the Christmas tree, ..where, if we've been kind, honest and respectful of our elders, the King will reward us, by covering the WHITE CLOTH beneath our trees, with amazing gifts, ..in the same way he shared with us, in ancient times!
[He's called 'the King of the White Cloth' for another reason. Read about it, when you get a minute.]
Like the CHRISTMAS TREE, itself, ..there are so many pre-Christian, European and secular traditions, that we already enjoy, as part of our Christmas celebrations, ..you would be amazed! The true history of Saint Nicholas, which inspired the legend of Santa Claus, has absolutely nothing to do, with Christmas...nothing; yet, there he is, in all of our holiday cards and seasonal, department store promotions. There are many wonderful ways, far older, than Kwanzaa, we can incorporate our ancestral traditions, into this special season...
BIG and small!
My holiday wish ..is that we all feel, like a great, benevolent Sky Father reached down, through the wasteful chaos and the mundanity, ..and embraced us - then, gave us back something of ourselves, we thought forever lost. Is that better, than presents?
Hope so.
Whoever, wherever you are, ..believe in the spirit of giving. Merry Christmas, amigos.
Edgar Miraculous (Mel) Dyer, without his fine, coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby (now moved on to that big, coyote-hatin' hate group in the Sky) continues a somewhat bleaker, dogless existence in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC. He has been an active member of the Latino Culture Council of the Capitol Area (El Consejo de Cultura Latina – La Zona del Capitolio) and the Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill.
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