The Reason for the
Holiday
A
holiday is described
as a day to take off from work in commemoration of some event. While we are not suggesting that you take
off work for a Night of Natch, we are asking you to begin incorporating the
essence of the message behind a Night of Natch.
Holidays
are usually celebrations or remembrances of events in human history that have
been important for one reason or another. Typically there is a winter, spring,
summer, and fall celebration that almost all cultures celebrate. The meaning of most
holidays is clear: Valentine’s Day celebrates romance; Memorial Day honors the
dead (particularly those who died in war).
A Night of Natch has a deeper significance. What is it?
I am a strong proponent of
culture—it is the glue that holds a people together. I also believe that since we were stripped of so many facets of
our culture, it is imperative for us to create new ones that reflect our
present state of consciousness. Black
people should celebrate themselves as often as possible in order to reject all
the negative messages about us that we are forced by the media to ingest on a
regular basis.
For generations Black people
have been bombarded by the media to change themselves into some illusory image
of beauty, particularly straight hair, light skin, rail-thin bodies. There is nothing wrong with that look…if it
is natural. That is not us. I contend that one’s natural self is best,
in whatever form it comes in. No one
should look for beauty outside of themselves.
If you really believe in God, believe that God was right. God was right about our nappy hair. God was right about our luscious lips, our
spacious noses, our beautiful shades of brown, tan, black, beige, blue-black,
and deep red. It is time we accept and
glorify the design of the creator over the design of the media.
That being said, Night of Natch, will fill the void of self-esteem that continues to stunt our social growth, which impacts growth in all other aspects of our lives. A Night of Natch is a holiday for us to celebrate a wide variety of things like family, community, and love of self.
There's
supposed to be something magical about a holiday. Perhaps what is special about a Night of Natch is simply the
realization that we have a REASON to celebrate ourselves.
We are a special people, unique among a planet of humans. Take our
hair…no other people have unique hair like ours. Unique means one of a kind—unequaled—that by itself gives us EXCEPTIONAL value. If we
don’t value ourselves, no one else will.
It is up to us to recognize it.
It is up to us to embrace it. It
is up to us to see it reflected through our actions and behavior, and by our
values. Values
are not only physical and external.
They can also be psychological.
Use a Night of Natch as a time to take a good look around you. Use it to find something spiritual and wonderful about yourself, your life, and the people who fill it and make it special. That is a conscious choice you can make, what you value or don’t value. Not to just give thanks or show appreciation through some materialistic and commercial sense, but to understand that you are blessed by God just as you are. No matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs, this holiday should involve some understanding that we should be celebrating that which is very special about our natural selves.
A Night of Natch does not need
to be sanctioned by the dominant culture to give it validity. Our recognition of it is the only sanction
we need. We are on a journey of awakening
and re-awakening, a journey of self-actualization, a return to the
natural. What could be wrong with
that? A Night of Natch is just the
beginning…
Peace, light & love
Dee Robinson
Mentaltainment, LLC