LOS ANGELES, CA (CNS) -- The seven-day festival of Kwanzaa begins tomorrow, marking its 40th anniversary amid growing official acceptance and criticism of its authenticity and value.
Maulana Karenga, a professor in Cal State Long Beach's Department of Black Studies, created Kwanzaa in 1966 in an attempt to reaffirm and restore blacks' ties to African culture, reaffirm and reinforce bonds among blacks and to introduce and reinforce the ''Nguzo Saba,'' the Seven Principles, according to the Official Kwanzaa Web Site, www.officialkwanzaawebsite.org.
The Seven Principles are unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
During the week, a candelabrum called a ''kinara'' is lit, and ears of corn representing each child in the family are placed on a traditional straw mat.
African foods such as millet, spiced pepper balls and rice are often served. Some people fast during the holiday, and a feast is often held on the holiday's final night.
A flag with three bars -- red for the struggle for freedom, black for unity and green for the future -- is sometimes displayed during the holiday.
Kwanzaa is based on the theory of Kawaida, which espouses that social revolutionary change for black America can be achieved by exposing blacks to their cultural heritage.
Kwanzaa's authenticity and value have been questioned by several newspaper columnists.
In a 1999 column, Tony Snow, now the White House press secretary, wrote, ''There is no part of Kwanzaa that is not fraudulent.''
Snow's basis for calling Kwanzaa fraudulent include its ceremonies for having no discernible African roots and it being named for a Swahili term, an East African language, while most black Americans are descended from slaves from West Africa.
''Nobody ever ennobled a people with a lie or restored stolen dignity through fraud,'' Snow wrote. ''Kwanzaa is the ultimate chump holiday -- Jim Crow with a false and festive wardrobe. It praises practices -- 'cooperative economics, and collective work and responsibility' -- that have succeeded nowhere on earth and would mire American blacks in endless backwardness.''
In a column in Saturday's New York Times, Orlando Patterson, a Harvard sociology professor, wrote that Kwanzaa is ''pure invention, in a manner similar to the wholly fictitious Scottish highland tradition that pipes up around the New Year.''
''Kwanzaa borrowed heavily from Hanukkah, right down to the menorah, in fashioning the American art of mirroring the mainstream while doing one's one ethnic thing,'' Patterson wrote.
There was no response to a request for an interview with Karenga.
Although a 2005 poll commissioned by the National Retail Federation found that 1 percent of those surveyed said they would celebrate Kwanzaa, compared to 94 percent who said they would celebrate Christmas and 5 percent who said they would celebrate Hanukkah, the U.S. Postal Service issued Kwanzaa stamps in 1997 and 2004, and an annual Kwanzaa presidential message is released.
In his year's Kwanzaa message, President Bush said ''40 years after the first Kwanzaa, this hopeful occasion remains an opportunity to build the bonds of family, community, culture and move ever closer to the founding promise of liberty and justice for all.''
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is scheduled to attend the California African American Museum's annual Kwanzaa candle lighting ceremony tomorrow in Exposition Park.
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