NRO's David Frum has a comparison between Bush and Clinton's remarks at the lighting of the national Christmas tree. Besides the firm statement of Christian belief in the Bush's message, I thought one of the remarkable points was Clinton's mention of Kwanzaa.
Although I find the entire idea of Kwanzaa to be ridiculous, I generally favor more celebrations rather than fewer. If I were a kid, I'd want more gift-giving holidays, too. But to put it on a par with Christmas, the third-most-holy day on the Christian calendar behind Good Friday and Easter, is way too much. It's not even on a par with the minor Jewish Festival of Lights. My biggest problem with Kwanzaa is that the implicit message isn't just that one ought to celebrate one's ethnic heritage -- a harmless thing, if kept in perspective -- but that Christmas is a "white" holiday. There are tens of millions of black Christians in the world; do they really think Christ wasn't born for them? Doubtful.
I wonder what the future of Kwanzaa will be. Given that its organizers have harnessed the powerful engine of consumerism in its service, it might be around for a while, but my bet is that it will mostly die out within a generation.
And what's with the extra "a" at the end? Was it originally a Dutch word?
