A Hanukkah Girl in a Christmas World

Megan Godwin loves the holidays – from the chilly weather right down to the seasonal Starbucks cups.

And she should because she grew up celebrating multiple holidays. Godwin, OU Hillel president and health and exercise science junior, comes from a split heritage. Each year, she split time between her mother’s menorah and her father’s Christmas tree.

At her dad’s house, she would “do” Christmas and open presents, she says. But with her mother, she says she would actually celebrate Hanukkah with a visit to the temple, a Hanukkah dinner and nightly candle lightings, prayers and presents.

Her mom never gave her the opportunity to forget her heritage, she says.

“I went to Sunday School all the time,” she says. “I actually got perfect attendance every single year. My mom made me. No choice.”

As for the inundation of Christmas cheer on the airwaves, radio stations and store windows, it’s all just part of the norm, she says.

“I’ve grown up with it, so I don’t really know anything else,” she says. “So actually I think it’s more normal to have more Christmas. And I don’t mind it as long as people aren’t shoving it down my throat.”

She’s perfectly content as long as she has the sight of a glowing menorah in the windowsill come Dec. 1 – the first day of Hanukkah this year. Of course, the eight presents – most of which are stocking stuffers – don’t hurt either.

The Culture of Kwanzaa

Kwanzaa wasn’t attractive to Daron Stallworth as a child.

He, like every other child in America, liked presents. Christmas had them; Kwanzaa didn’t.

Now older and wiser, the sophomore says he’s come to appreciate the holiday for what it is – a reflection on and celebration of African culture and heritage.

Observed Dec. 26- Jan.1, Kwanzaa is an African-American cultural holiday aiming to give blacks more awareness of their own African roots, Stallworth says.

And that means Kwanzaa celebrants are free to participate in other holidays as well.

“Nobody has to compromise their beliefs,” says Stallworth, chair of the 12th annual Kwanzaa Ball. “It’s definitely a cultural thing.”

Kwanzaa, a Swahili phrase, translates to ‘first fruits of the harvest,’ which derives from the holiday’s roots in Pan-Africanism, a movement that seeks to unify Africans and those of African descent, Stallworth says.

But the holiday can really speak to anyone as the seven principles of Kwanzaa are universal: unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith.

Stallworth says the lighting of the kinara, which holds a candle for each value, is the most meaningful holiday ritual for him.

“It gives you time to not only observe, but reflect on what each of those values means,” he says.