MONDAY, JANUARY 21: As Martin Luther King, Jr. Day dawns on Monday, millions of Americans already will have spent their weekend helping others. The linkage between the King holiday and public service is now a part of the annual three-day weekend coast to coast. TODAY, our story tells you how to get involved—and provides free inspirational reading you can share with others.

NATIONAL DAY OF SERVICE

THE WEEKEND leading to the King holiday now is filled with service events, including the National Day of Service (that website offers links to programs across the country via a Zip Code search). The United We Serve website also is a gateway into the nationwide network of volunteer opportunities.

These themes extend into Inauguration Day 2013, which we cover in a second story.

MICRO-VOLUNTEERING

This year, Americans are hearing more about the trend toward “micro-volunteering.” The goal is finding bite-sized ways for men and women to provide valuable service in the midst of otherwise busy schedules.

National Public Radio began its reports on the National Day of Service by highlighting micro-volunteering: Michelle Nunn heads Points of Light, the nation’s largest volunteer organization … She says nonprofits have to be more creative as needs grow but budgets tighten.”There’s now what we call sort of ‘micro-volunteering,’ where if you actually have 15 minutes, there are little micro-assignments. You can help a nonprofit think about how they edit their funding letter or to come up with a great new slogan.”

With the explosion of social networking, a growing number of commercial and non-profit applications are zeroing in on mirco-volunteering. One leading firm in the field is Sparked, which sells tools to help companies and nonprofits find worthwhile ways to use this crowdsourcing form of small-bite activism.

Sound silly? Or, to put it bluntly: Are these micro-volunteers just too lazy to do more? No, on the contrary, “Micro” is an important new reality in American life. IN A RELATED STORY THIS WEEK, Caregiving columnist Heather Jose focuses on the nation’s more than 60 million caregivers, people who are caring for people with chronic health issues or disabilities. These caregivers already are providing untold hours of service. Heather Jose’s column focuses on micro-resolutions for these caregivers to improve their own health and spirits—so they can keep working in the trenches of daily service throughout the year.

INSPIRING READING ABOUT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Americans are innundated with Martin Luther King, Jr. Day media! One terrific resource is this Wikipedia entry on King Day, which includes links to the original holiday legislation and other interesting historical materials. ReadTheSpirit has its own fascinating series of King stories, which are part of a book we publish: Interfaith Heroes, Volume 2, by Daniel Buttry. We have published online a series of four chapters from that book because they tell the inspiring (and educational) story of peacemakers passing their insights from one generation to another—and from one part of the world to another. The chapters include: Mohandas Gandhi, then Martin Luther King himself, plus Aung San Suu Kyi, and also E. Stanley Jones.

You may also enjoy reading about peacemaking themes that still echo from President Abraham Lincoln’s remarkable Second Inaugural Address.

COMPLETE I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH BY DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

Thanks to a German YouTube poster, we can listen to the following audio of King’s most famous speech, I Have a Dream, combined with photos of King. The entire video runs 13 minutes. If you do not see a video screen in your version of this column, click here to reload it and the screen should appear.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.

 

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26: The seven-day African-American festival founded in 1966 may not be a growing trend in Americans’ homes—but, even before Kwanzaa reaches its 50th anniversary, the holiday established by Maulanga Karenga certainly is a fixture in American life.

There is no exact data on how many households observe Kwanzaa—but a number of experts conclude that Kwanzaa’s night-by-night observance has leveled off and may even be shrinking in individual homes. One study looked at annual sales of Kwanzaa-related supplies. Another often-quoted source is Keith Mayes, author of a book about Kwanzaa’s history who says that 500,000 to 2 million African-Americans are likely to celebrate each year. However, Mayes points out: Now, white Americans mark Kwanzaa.

There is much more to this story …

WHITE HOUSE DECLARATIONS

Of course, the current residents of the White House are African-American. The Obamas’ annual, official Kwanzaa greetings usually list all seven principles of Kwanzaa, as in this White House message for the festival: “The seven principles of Kwanzaa—Unity, Self Determination, Collective Work and Responsibility, Cooperative Economics, Purpose, Creativity, and Faith—express the values that have inspired us as individuals and families; communities and country. These same principles have sustained us as a nation during our darkest hours and provided hope for better days to come.”

However, the Obamas certainly did not start this annual, official recognition! White presidents, including George W. Bush, have issued annual Kwanzaa greetings as well. In one message, Bush said: In honoring the traditions of Africa, Kwanzaa strengthens the ties that bind individuals in communities across our country and around the world.

KWANZAA AND 50TH ANNIVERSARY
OF U.S. HOLIDAY STAMPS

Clearly, Kwanzaa has become a standard part of America’s civic calendar of cross-cultural observances. There’s no stronger evidence of that than the U.S. Postal Service’s celebration this year of 50 Years of Holiday Stamps—which includes proud recognition of its Kwanzaa series.

Way back in 1962, our nation’s postal service issued the first holiday stamp on November 1, 1962. The modestly designed, 4-cent, red-and-green stamp showed a wreath and two lit candles above the word “Christmas.”

If you are a stamp collector—before you email us to debate this anniversary—it is true that postal officials had recognized the popularity of earlier stamps with a Christmas-like theme. Earlier stamps showing woods and fir trees had been popular around Christmas. The Postmaster General in 1962, J. Edward Day, knew what he was doing as he released that first festive 4-center. Then, that first Christmas stamp sold more than a billion copies—far more than Day had even hoped.

Flash forward and our central post office added Hanukkah in 1996—in an unusual joint arrangement with Israel so that the stamp’s candle-lit design appeared on postage in both countries. Then—and this is a sign of Kwanzaa’s mainstream acceptance—the postal service actually started issuing Kwanzaa stamps (in 1997) before it began issuing Eid stamps to celebrate two different Muslim holidays. The word Eid means festival or celebration so is appropriate on more than one Islamic occasion. The Eid stamp debuted on September 1, 2001, and given what happened 10 days later, that stamp displaying beautiful Arabic caligraphy drew both the highest number of complaints ever received about a stamp—and the most notes of thanks for a stamp.

Clearly, marking holidays in this way has a deep and personal connection for Americans.

KWANZAA AND AMERICAN RETAIL CREATIVITY

In addition to the four U.S. Postal Service Kwanzaa stamps—shown with our story today—many creative celebrants of Kwanzaa traditions have created their own specialized postage stamps. Now, the postal service allows Americans to use approved stamp-making services to create their own personalized stamps. You can even make stamps showing your children or family pets. And for Kwanzaa? We see lots of creativity surfacing. For example, the Zazzle customized retail website now has a whole host of user-generated Kwanzaa stamps offered year ‘round.

Truly, Kwanzaa has gone mainstream. The giant Hallmark website boasts an entire contemporary Kwanzaa section. Walk into a Target store’s holiday section and you might not locate many Kwanzaa choices—but the Target online store offers several family-oriented books about the festival. Among online retailers, Amazon is the mother lode of Kwanzaa options: Listing thousands of Kwanzaa items—and, within that larger list, more than 100 items related to the Kwanzaa kinara (the colorful candle holder that is lit night by night). Amazon sells everything from versions of the actual kinara to candle sets, decorative table mats, kinara banners, books about the candle-lighting ritual—even kinara-themed Christmas stockings to mix holidays in your home!

In fact, news stories from across the U.S. over the past couple of years indicate that the most elaborate Kwanzaa observances may be in community centers, churches, museums and other public places. We are still six years away from the golden anniversary of Karenga’s dream—and Kwanzaa seems to be solidly enshrined as a part of American cultural life.

HANDS-ON KWANZAA: RECIPES, IDEAS & MORE

Whether your family has celebrated Kwanzaa every year or is new to the scene, everyone can get in on the fun with recipes, craft ideas and coloring printables from Disney’s Kaboose, Scholastic and FamilyEducation. Check out easy Kwanzaa recipes (with bright photographs), or try a hand at corncob painting, crafting a Kwanzaa chain or creating a Unity Cup with help from these sites. Scholastic also offers plenty of reading materials on the culture behind Kwanzaa, and its history—past and present.

Originally published at readthespirit.com, an online magazine covering religion and cultural diversity.