The African-American holiday Kwanzaa begins today. We're helping to kick off the festivities with a look at the spelling of and the story behind its name.

Believe it or not, the story and the spelling are related. Kwanzaa (the holiday) has seven days and Kwanzaa (the word) originally had six, and now commonly has seven letters. Here's how the seventh letter, the final A, came to be added.

When Black-studies professor Maulana Karenga created the holiday in 1966, he patterned the celebration on various African harvest festivals. He also turned to an African language, Swahili, for its name. Karenga took the name for his new celebration from the phrase matunda ya kwanza: literally, "first fruits." Back then, Karenga spelled his new holiday "kwanza."

Maulana Karenga was a member of the Black nationalist association called "Us." According to Dr. Karenga, seven Us children wanted to put on a holiday program in which each child represented and explained a letter of Kwanzaa. In a footnote found in his 1988 book on Kwanzaa, Karenga explains, "since Kwanza . . . has only six letters, we added an extra 'a' to make it seven. . . ."

By the way, can you name the seven principles honored by Kwanzaa? They are:

unity
self-determination
collective responsibility
cooperative economics
purpose
creativity
faith