|
Episode #2210
Roots of Holiday Traditions
Lewis:
At this time of year familiar traditions of Christmas are widely celebrated. But how much do we know about their roots? We will explore this holiday next on Black Issues Forum.
[THEME MUSIC]
Voiceover:
Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
Lewis:
It is a brisk December day on the campus of Durham’s American tobacco historic district. And the lights and decorations are definite reminders of the widely-celebrated Christmas holiday. Yet with so many lights many of us are still in the dark about some of the traditions surrounding this holiday. I am your host Mitchell Lewis and this afternoon we will take a look at how some African-Americans celebrate. A primary religious tradition of Christmas is celebrating the birth of Christ, commonly called the nativity. In 1961 the African-American poet and playwright Langston Hughes reinvented the classic Euro-centric picture of Christ’s birth in his song play the Black Nativity. Today Winston-Salem’s North Carolina Black Repertory Company brings a fresh interpretation to this African-American Christmas card to the world.
Bolton:
The story of Christ’s birth takes center stage in the Black Nativity. Written by Langston Hughes it imagines the nativity story through an all-black cast. Its themes of anticipation, fear, and jubilee are told in the black musical vernacular and African griot narrates the play, gospel melodies undulate against pulsating R&B rhythms, a teasing rap encourages the shepherd boy to become a man. Mable Robinson, a director and choreographer at the North Carolina Black Repertory Company in Winston-Salem explains their take on a Christmas classic.\
Robinson:
They just do it with the Afrocentric style which means we have the African costume; we open it with an African dance of celebration that announces the marriage of Mary and Joseph and then the angel visit. So we give of ourselves to the story so it will always be alive.
Bolton:
The Black Nativity traces Mary and Joseph’s story from fear to faith. The first half of the play tells the story of Christ’s birth. The second half depicts the renewal of the community resulting from the birth of the Messiah.
Moore:
She is a teenager. She found herself in this particular predicament. She has to explain to her husband that she is going to give birth through Immaculate Conception and that is, you know when I think about that I know that is probably a really hard thing that she had to do so the relationship between Mary and Joseph is probably a little strained there.
Bolton:
Mary and Joseph don’t speak throughout the play. They interpret the story through dance. This allows performers to express universal themes for modern audiences cast members said.
Moore:
I think about looking for strength from Joseph because he is older and the relationship there he leads a lot, even in our movement he leads and I follow.
Williams:
It is important that I play that role as a strong, supportive black male in this particular play regardless of the time period was back then or how it was back then. For the audience today I want them to see a strong black male who is there for his wife, regardless of what the times are with her. I am going to stick by her and make sure she is taken care of.
Bolton:
This marks the sixth year that the North Carolina Black Repertory Company has performed the Black Nativity. Larry Leon Hamlin founded the company in 1989. Hamlin wanted to unite black theater companies in America and insure their survival. The company’s performance of the Black Nativity is part of that said Cheryl Oliver, the company’s interim executive director.
Oliver:
The community has embraced this play. We use professional actors and actresses and the director and every year it has just become a holiday tradition here in Winston.
Bolton:
Theater also allows the African-American community to preserve its cultural traditions said Felicia Piggott McMillan. McMillan has been with the company with the beginning and chronicled its history in a book.
McMillan:
It fulfills a need within our own spirituality. And on the shores of Africa we are always listening to the African griot who possessed, who was the keeper of our stories. We can remember those traditions and those names that they pass on to us to theater is a way to recapture the voice of the African griot.
Bolton:
The Black Nativity grows richer and deeper with each retelling said Georjean Moore who has performed in the play since its six-year run.
Moore:
It is a very clear story. It is a very fascinating story. It is a story that you can never get enough of.
Lewis:
Part of the legacy of African-Americans is the ability to take something and make it our own. Blacks have versioned popular holiday tunes in the forms of jazz, soulful spirituals, and R&B. But in this next segment St. Paul’s AME Church in Chapel Hill shows us the rich African-American tradition in their classic Christmas cantata.
TODD:
For many African-Americans preparation for the Christmas holiday begins with joyful music. Cantatas are a demanding form of music and although the word cantata finds its roots in 17th Century Italy, St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church senior choir has worked hard to shape the music into a tradition of their own.
Woodward:
The choir is the senior music auxiliary of the church. We really don’t have written history of our traditions oral. The program series you are attending today is 30-years-old today.
Lewis:
A cantata is a composition of many voices often accompanied by instruments and featuring a number of movements. St. Paul’s consists of secular songs.
Woodward:
Since I came on board in the early 90’s I’ve been arranging an original cantata annually with a different theme.
Lewis:
The St. Paul AME senior choir has performed almost every form of Christmas music ever written. In this concert the choir performs over 25 songs varying in scale, length, chants and excerpts.
Woodward:
But our real specialty is passing the African-American Christmas tradition to audiences who may not have ever heard this music. One of my favorite pieces you will hear it is called the “Christmas Fisherman’s Hymn.” The piece is about Christmas fishermen in South Carolina during the holiday season and exactly what the song says is that they are thinking about heaven while they are actually enjoying earth. My personal vision for this choir is to elevate voices and talent and standards so they are willing to carry this tradition on, pass it on to younger members.
Lewis:
There is one tradition in the United States that is practically synonymous with Christmas, Santa Clause. The complex history of this figure probably doesn’t matter a lot to excited boys and girls and some excited adults. But he has generated quite a bit of discussion. And here are just a few of the reasons why.
Sullivan:
The legend of Santa Clause varies from culture to culture and even within cultures. Not everyone is on board with the idea that Santa is a positive force. The stories and traditions that surround him come largely from Europe but names like Saint Nicholas, Father Christmas, Santa Clause and even Black Peter have no meaning to some people and a variety of origins and meanings to others.
Whalen:
And particularly as Saint Nicholas the formal Catholic saint sort of moved into the limelight more and more you saw all sorts of different Saint Nicholas’s, different Santa Clauses, moving into people’s homes, into different parts of the world. For many Americans the traditions come from the Dutch who immigrated to New York in the early years of the 19th Century.
Whalen:
And in particular you have the work by Washington Irving called “Knickerbockers Sister in New York,” which was published around 1809. And in that book he describes this Dutch figure, this Dutch tradition of Santa Clause and describes this figure dressed in red who goes around in a sleigh, who brings presents to children.
Sullivan:
The true 4th Century Saint Nick is known to have been the son of wealthy parents in Turkey who urged him to give to the poor, which he did. Somewhere in the course of history the Dutch wrote another character into the Santa script.
Bridges:
This little short elf was black, moves around with Santa Clause and he gives the negative gifts or negative things to the children where Santa Clause gives the good things. He is a negative character that was created by white people in Holland and he is called Black Peter.
Sullivan:
Within the African-American community today the idea of Santa Clause is not universally offensive. Some enjoy the legend as nothing more than a commercial venture which allows parents to lavish their children with gifts while also raising the year-end profits for businesses.
Medley:
My idea of the tradition, it is a wonderful one. I was having a discussion with my wife last night and this time of the year is the time of year where I wish I was still five-years-old.
Sullivan:
Recently black Santa Clause made an appearance in Raleigh courtesy of the Future Black Men of America organization. Antoine Medley is no grinch when it comes to celebrating Santa but he does not support the idea that one white Santa is enough.
Medley:
I think as far as African-American kids, they just need something to identify with, you know, that is positive that looks like them. I mean there is nothing wrong with white Santa Clause. There is nothing wrong with an Asian Santa Clause. There is nothing wrong with a black Santa Clause.
Sullivan:
Grace Kohler’s parents believe the same although they don’t even look like her. Frank and Sue Kohler could not have children of their own. When they adopted they asked for a North Carolina child and 18-month-old Grace is now at the center of their universe.
S.Koehler:
We just wanted her to have this experience and have a picture with a black Santa just because to me it made more sense.
F.Koehler:
Grace is going to have her own unique culture that she is, it is not going to be specifically white and it won’t be 100% black either but we feel it is important for her to know her culture and her heritage.
Sullivan:
The traditions and legends of Santa Clause are many. Right or wrong, Christian or pagan, black or white, the great or infamous Clause is most likely here to stay.
Lewis:
Although many African-Americans join in on Christmas celebrations, many have chosen not to. We sat down with Dr. Bruce Bridges who has done his own research on the origin and meaning of holiday traditions to find out why he and others believe Christmas is not a holiday to be celebrated by African-Americans.
Bridges:
As I said in my book, Recapturing the African Mind, on the island of Jamaica where snow is unheard of, African people are singing “Chestnuts roasting on an open fire and Jack Frost nipping at your nose,” and “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.” We are out of our minds.
Holt:
A lot of tradition is rooted in lore and myth and so forth and it is really for entertainment. So what is really damaging about these traditions for African-Americans?
Bridges:
The damage is as I said before, you are spitting upon your own culture and heritage and the culture and heritage of your ancestors. If you recall even when you see Roots, Fiddler who was born in America looked forward to Christmas. Kunta Kente who was born in Africa didn’t even know what Christmas was. You see the poison comes when we begin to teach children these things because if they never knew about it, it is really not for children it is for the adults who can’t get out of it. So we are poisoned with it in slavery and then we begin to pass it on to our children and other young people who are growing up and the poison is passed on and on and on. When does it stop? Whenever you are doing something that does not reflect your culture and your heritage and not only does not reflect it but is also detrimental to you as a people economically, spiritually—it is not correct, intellectually it is not correct, then therein lies the problem.
Holt:
Now how is this spiritually incorrect?
Bridges:
If you look into the origin of the December 25th birth date as I said I have, it is not in any book of scripture nor any book of historical value nor anywhere that that happened. And the reason I mention the 25th birthday is because you mentioned the spirituality of it. And that is where the spirituality comes in because of the birth of the Christ. But there is no proof at all for that particular birth date. And as a matter of fact, that birth date comes from the fact that around December 21st, which is the time of the Winter Solstice, and that word solstice comes from two words, two Latin words, sol which means the sun and sistera which means to stand still. People in ancient times saw that the days got shorter around December 21st and on December 25th the days started getting noticeably longer so they said that the sun is born. But they were talking about the sun in the sky. But some wise manipulator of society took the “u” out of the sun and put the “o” in there and then they related it to the son of God. And all of this can be found historically.
Lewis:
While familiar Christmas traditions like Santa Clause and the birth of Christ are European-based, there are a couple that do have African-American roots and connection. One little known tradition that has only been resurrected within the last two decades is actually somewhat unique to North Carolina. In recent years Tryon Palace in New Bern has presented a celebration called John Canoe, and it is distinctly African-American.
Bryant:
It is an English tradition that we do here at Tryon Palace, the history that we want to get everybody to understand, the education, part of our history, when enslaved people in the 19th Century from African-America in the West Indies celebrate what they call the John Canoe celebration.
Bell-Kite:
The first time recorded observation of John Canoe by a European observer was in 1688 in Jamaica and the tradition has African spiritual roots and it was initially performed in the Caribbean in Jamaica and it went there to Belize and other islands in the Caribbean to the Florida Keys and then to North Carolina.
Holt:
The annual celebration at Tryon Palace in New Bern is based on a comprehensive article about John Canoe written by historian Elizabeth Finn and published in the 1988 North Carolina Historical Review. It describes traditional characters like the fancy man who dressed in Sunday attire and carried a tin cup to ask the slave owner for money. And there was the rag man.
Bryant:
This is the rag man costume. Again as you can see every piece of material on this rag man costume comes from a different family and—
Holt:
Sharon explained that the strips represented the spirits of the family. And as the rag man danced around the strips of cloth would fly freely, symbolizing the freeing of each family. The rag man also wore a headdress man of ox horns, an African tradition.
Bryant:
This is made from a raccoon. This is his real skin, his tail.
Bell-Kite:
In West Africa that was seen as a sign of male power, male prowess. Which is interesting because for Europeans they viewed this, and in European tradition wearing horns on your head was more of a sign of a jester or fool and so it has very different meanings for Europeans and the African-Americans who celebrated the festival. In Jamaica there are some traditions where instead of wearing ox horns the people would wear a model house or some sort of structure on top of their head as the headdress.
Holt:
John Canoe songs often mock the white residents, a tradition derived from West African culture.
Bryant:
So the celebration comes out in a song such as “Hello somebody, hello.” They are talking about Mr. Haige, one of the houses, one of the plantation owners. He is in his house. He is an older gentleman, say 80-years-old. His wife is about 30 to 32-years-old. And Mr. Haige is in the house making babies. So in the song they are poking fun or mocking their slave owner.
Holt:
Although John Canoe was a strong tradition during slavery and afterwards, it died our around the time of Jim Crow.
Bell-Kite:
In Wilmington it continued through the 19th Century. There were articles in the newspaper describing the John Canoe celebrations in given years. But many people have recorded that after the Wilmington race riots in 1898 that all John Canoe celebrations were very much frowned upon.
Holt:
With close ties to such disturbing elements of America’s past, some African-Americans have hesitated to participate in the celebration of John Canoe.
Bryant:
My first impression I was like you want me to do what? So I asked, give me some history, you know, tell me what this entails. And once I got it and you know we started pulling it together I was like, “I can’t do this.” And then I thought about it, the underground railroad, Harriet Tubman and those people that went on before us, you can do anything. And it is up to you to make out what history lies. So I decided I’ll give it a shot. And it was fun.
Lewis:
While John Canoe represents a Tarheel tradition for African-Americans during this holiday season Kwanza which means first fruits in Swahili is not only celebrated here in the United States but also in African countries. Kwanza consists of seven principles to help reconnect people of African descent to having pride in one’s community and culture. Joseph, Gange, Gail and Kareem Anderson represent the group the Healing Force from Winston-Salem. Their performance before these youngsters at the Carrboro Art Center focused on celebrating Kwanza. Kwanza, which means first fruits in Swahili, is an African-American and Pan African holiday which is celebrated from December 26 through January 1. Founded in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, Kwanza serves as a time to reaffirm and restore family, community and culture. The holiday also celebrates the creating, harvesting, and sharing of good in the world and for the world.
Anderson:
The principles of Kwanza are to be lived. And so if we lived the principles, umoja, unity, if we have unity in our community—I know that rhymes—if we have unity in our community we could get, it would be a better place for our children.
Lewis:
Kwanza emphasizes seven principles that are considered the cornerstone of Kwanzaa. The first one is umoja, which means unity. Kujichagulia is self-determination. Ujima is collective work and responsibility. Ujamaa, cooperative economics. Nia, purpose. Kuumba, creativity. And imani, faith.
Seven candles are lit to represent each of the principles. The first candle lit is black, which symbolizes the faces of African people. There are three red candles and three green candles. Red represents the blood of African people shed for freedom, green stands for hope and fruitfulness. Members of the Healing Force hope that their Kwanza presentation will not only introduce youngsters to a unique cultural event but also help them to realize that there are more similarities among various cultures than differences.
Anderson:
The children begin to realize that we are not all that different after all even though we may sing a different song or speak a different language or look different, you know, have a different color skin or whatever. There are so many things that are alike about us that it is hardly, you can hardly pick at one another about what is different because there are so many things that we have in common.
Lewis:
We hope that today we’ve helped add a little more meaning to your holiday. If you’d like to send us your comments or learn more about today’s topics, visit us online at UNC-TV.org/bif. You can also call us on the BIF line at (919) 549-7167. For Black Issues Forum I’m Mitchell Lewis wishing you happy holidays and all the best for the coming New Year.
Voiceover:
Quality public television is made possible through the financial contributions of viewers like you who invite you to join them in supporting UNC-TV.
[END OF RECORDING]
|
