Celebration Held In Cherry Hill, NJ To Mark First Day Of Kwanzaa

By Hadas Kuznits

CHERRY HILL, NJ (CBS) -- Today marked the first day of the African-American cultural holiday of Kwanzaa.

A celebration of Kwanzaa was held at the Garden State Discovery Museum.

"We celebrate Kwanzaa from December 26th until January 1st. It was founded by Maulana Karenga in 1966," says Karen Abdul Malik, also known as Queen Nor, president of the National Association of Black Storytellers.

Kuznits: "What do you want people to take away from this (event)?"

"Oh absolutely that this is a communal holiday. It's about our community."

Queen Nor, storyteller (credit: Hadas Kuznits)

She describes Kwanzaa as an African-American harvest festival with symbolic seeds that stand for concepts rather than crops:

"And so we plant our seeds all year long in those principles: unity, cooperative economics, self-determination, faith, and at the end of the year, we harvest, we celebrate!"

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