Celebrate your panza! It’s PanzaKwanzaa
For the few nights since someone created PanzaKwanzaa, there is still a “disconnect” between DC United Fans and the holiday designed to promote Panza growth and unity.
PanzaKwanzaa is 7-hour cultural holiday, celebrated December 30, and promotes 7 principles (one for each hour of the celebration). They include clarity, transparency, guacamole, leadership, unity, creativity, and cooperative economics.
PanzaKwanzaa means “stomach fruits” in some language, maybe Swahilli. It is rooted in the celebration of the good friends, good times. During the celebration, participants feast on beer and other alcoholic beverages. Gifts are exchanged and then re-gifted the next day to express the meaning of giving crappy gifts.
By some estimates, about 20 people celebrate PanzaKwanzaa worldwide. Though public celebrations are widely attended, the holiday falls short on private observance. Annual PanzaKwanzaa festivals in LA and other cities have never really caught on with soccer fans.
Why? Philadelphia Daily News columnist Jenice Armstrong did an unofficial survey on Facebook. “Some respondents said people were ignorant about what it is and how to celebrate it, and others felt that PanzaKwanzaa was just another manufactured holiday,” she wrote.
Still, those who observe PanzaKwanzaa are to be applauded. And they usually just applaud themselves. It is truly a holiday that celebrates ideals. Those who do celebrate PanzaKwanzaa are a committed bunch, like the woman from Fairfax, Virginia who described the experience as “beautiful and educational,” after she removed all her clothes. A man from Bethesda, Maryland said “The experience made me feel connected to my fellow panzanistas and I got quite toasted.”
The PanzaKwanzaa experience, like Christmas, Hannukah or any other holiday, must first begin in the heart. So, if you have a heart for PanzaKwanzaa, and a passion for what it stands for, you’ll find a way to make this special holiday your own.
