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Plate 1 Seven candles standing side by side, three red, one black and three green

Mishumaa saba (the seven candles)

Mishumaa saba (“seven candles” in Swahili) are the candles of Kwanzaa: one black, three red and three green, one for each of the holiday’s seven principles. The black candle is lit first, on 26 December, and one more is lit on each evening that follows.

Kwanzaa symbols. Also called kwanzaa candle colors, kwanzaa candle order, kwanzaa candles, seven candles of kwanzaa.

Meaning

Mishumaa (mi-shu-MA-a) is the plural of mshumaa, a candle, and saba (SA-ba) is seven, in Madan’s Swahili-English dictionary of 1903. The official Kwanzaa website calls the candles “symbolic of the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles”, the principles that, in the website’s words, African people are urged to live by. They stand in the Kinara, and each has its place. The black candle, for Umoja (unity), is in the centre. The three red candles, for Kujichagulia (self-determination), Ujamaa (cooperative economics) and Kuumba (creativity), stand to its left. The three green candles, for Ujima (collective work and responsibility), Nia (purpose) and Imani (faith), stand to its right. Children can light the candles each day and explain the principle, the website suggests, and each day’s greeting, “Habari gani?” (“What is the news?”), is answered with that day’s principle.

Origin and history

The candles take their colours from the Kwanzaa flag, the bendera: black for the people, red for their struggle and green for “the future and hope that comes from their struggle”, as the official website puts it. That is why there is one black candle and three each of red and green. Karenga calls the principles they stand for “the hub and hinge on which the holiday Kwanzaa turns”, and lighting them, in his 2024 column for the Los Angeles Sentinel, is “lifting up the light that lasts”.

In what order are the Kwanzaa candles lit?

The black candle is always lit first, on 26 December, the day of Umoja; every account agrees on that except one. After it, the official website’s own text and its own diagram differ. The text says the remaining candles are lit “from left to right on the following days”, to show “that the people come first, then the struggle and then the hope that comes from the struggle”. The diagram beside it, “Lighting the Kinara during Kwanzaa”, numbers the candles otherwise, alternating outward from the centre: the red candle next to the black on day 2 (Kujichagulia), the green next to the black on day 3 (Ujima), then the middle red and middle green on days 4 and 5 (Ujamaa and Nia), and the outermost red and green on days 6 and 7 (Kuumba and Imani). In that order each night’s new candle is the colour of that night’s principle.

Families do it both ways. Buffalo Toronto Public Media described the two orders in 2021: some families light from left to right, starting with the leftmost red candle, so that the people come first, then the struggle, then hope; others alternate between red and green, starting with the leftmost red and then the rightmost green, “symbolizing that there is hope even in the midst of struggle”. Either way, it noted, the fifth candle is green. The one dissenting account is Frank Dobson’s, in an essay of 2017, which has the black candle lit on the last day.

See also

Kinara, Nguzo Saba (the seven principles), Mkeka (the mat), Mazao (the crops), Muhindi (the corn), Kikombe cha umoja (the unity cup).

Sources

  1. The Symbols of Kwanzaa (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “The Symbols of Kwanzaa”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), Primary Symbols: Mishumaa Saba
  2. The Celebration (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “The Celebration”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), Candle Lighting
  3. Symbols and Insights of Kwanzaa: Deep Meanings and Expansive Message (Maulana Karenga, Los Angeles Sentinel, 2024), Maulana Karenga, “Symbols and Insights of Kwanzaa: Deep Meanings and Expansive Message”, Los Angeles Sentinel, 4 December 2024, Los Angeles Sentinel, paragraphs on the mishumaa saba
  4. Swahili-English Dictionary (A. C. Madan, 1903), A. C. Madan, Swahili-English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1903), Internet Archive (University of California Libraries scan), entries Gani; Mshumaa; Saba
  5. HEAR: The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa (Buffalo Toronto Public Media, 2021), Buffalo Toronto Public Media (WNED/WBFO), “HEAR The Seven Principles of Kwanzaa”, What’s Next?, 29 December 2021, Buffalo Toronto Public Media, segments for 27 and 30 December
  6. What Kwanzaa means for Black Americans (Frank Dobson, The Conversation, via PBS NewsHour), Frank Dobson (Vanderbilt University), “What Kwanzaa means for Black Americans”, The Conversation, 20 December 2017; republished by PBS NewsHour, 30 December 2021, PBS NewsHour, paragraph on the seven principles
  7. Kwanzaa for Children (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “Kwanzaa for Children”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), The Participation of Children
  8. Greetings, Gifts, and Colors and Decorations (Official Kwanzaa Website), Organization Us, Official Kwanzaa Website, “Greetings, Gifts, and Colors and Decorations”; text summarised from Maulana Karenga, Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family, Community and Culture (University of Sankore Press, 2008), Official Kwanzaa Website (Organization Us), Greetings

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Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 8, 2026. How we research

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