Kwanzaa is a week-long, African American holiday observance held from December 26 to January 1. Timed to serve as an alternative to the growing commercialism of Christmas, it was created in 1966 by Ron Karenga, black activist and director of the Black Studies department at the California State University, Long Beach. Kwanzaa is not a religious holiday, but a cultural one, a syncretic festival, based on various elements of the first harvest celebrations widely celebrated in Africa, around the 10th month of the year. According to a survey conducted by the National Retail Foundation in October 2004, 1.6% of consumers celebrate Kwanzaa, which would calculate out to approximately 12% of African Americans, as derived from 2002 U.S. Census statistics.