The African American holiday, Kwanzaa, begins Friday (December 26) and goes through January 1st. A professor of Pan-African Studies at California State University created the holiday in 1966, as a non-religious celebration of family and social values. He designed it as a way for African Americans to reconnect with ancestral roots by celebrating African culture. The aim was for the holiday to expand and be celebrated by people with African ancestry all over the world. The name Kwanzaa is derived