Kwanzaa festivities light city

BY KERRY BURKE AND DORIAN BLOCK DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Saturday, December 27th 2008, 4:00 AM
For thousands of New Yorkers, the end of Christmas Thursday marked the beginning of the seven-day festival of Kwanzaa.
The African-American and Pan-African holiday is observed by more than 40 million people around the world from Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. It is based on ancient harvest celebrations in Africa, called "first fruits celebrations," which were mostly held when the year ended and began.
Friday night, dozens met at the St. James Recreation Center on Jerome Ave. in the Bronx for a party of singing, dancing, poetry and food honoring the holiday.
"I grew up with Christmas, but when I heard about Kwanzaa, I felt it was something I wanted to share with my children," said Katherine Beltran, 34, a stay-at-home mother of four. "It brings back the idea of community."
That's the idea, according to the African American Cultural Center in California, whose director, Dr. Maulana Karenga, founded the holiday in 1966.
"It was created to reinforce African culture and restore it and reaffirm its importance and the importance of the bonds of its people," said Tulivu Jadi, assistant director of the center. "It also was created to introduce a body of values as the social glue that hold African-Americans together."
Kwanzaa is often marked by lighting a candleholder called a kinara, gathering with friends and family, gift giving, eating and decorating a home with African cloth and art. The seven principles the holiday celebrates are each represented by one candle in the kinara and include: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.
Several Kwanzaa events are scheduled across the city tomorrow. They include:

A Kwanzaa celebration at 2 p.m. at the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library, at 9 W. 124th St.

The 21st annual Kwanzaa celebration at the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center at 208 W. 13th St. begins at noon and continues into the night. The event includes an African market, feast and drumming circle.

"Kwanzaa Fest 2008" will be held at the American Museum of Natural History from noon to 5 p.m. The festival features an international market, and singing, drumming, dance and spoken word performances.

On Tuesday, the National Park Service will lead an all-day celebration of art, writing and historical workshops and performances at the African Burial Ground National Monument at 290 Broadway in lower Manhattan, beginning at 11 a.m.