Kwanzaa 2020 Forever Stamps — Seven Principles, First-Class Postage

Kwanzaa is a young holiday, established in 1966, built around African culture and history — and built, in particular, around a number.

Seven, repeatedly

The celebration runs seven days. There are seven principles, seven symbols, seven candles. There are seven letters in the name Kwanzaa.

Maggie Macnab, author of Decoding Design, describes seven as the untouchable, mystical process — feminine in orientation, invisible, mysterious, tied to what cannot be fully known.

Where else it turns up

Macnab points out how insistently the number recurs: seven digits in a telephone number, seven ancient and seven modern wonders, seven continents, seven seas, seven colors in a rainbow. It carries weight in a wide range of religions, which is probably why it reads as the symbol of perfection and completion in both physical and spiritual terms.

Whether Maulana Karenga built that in deliberately when he founded Kwanzaa is an open question. Either way, what makes the holiday remarkable is what it gathers — culture, history and community in the same week.

Ships from our U.S. warehouse within 1 business day.

Secure checkout with major cards and PayPal.

Tracking information will be provided once your order ships.