Celebrating Heritage Day

By James Katende – Celebrating the different heritages on Heritage Day in South Africa is more than just acknowledging the cultures and traditions that make up this diverse nation. It is a deep and meaningful recognition that every person carries a story, every language holds a history, and every community contributes to the vibrant fabric of the country.

Heritage Day is an opportunity not just to enjoy food, music, attire, and dance from various groups but to truly honour the roots, the struggles, and the beauty that each heritage brings to the shared identity of South Africa. It is a day that calls us to remember that unity is not the absence of difference but the celebration of it and the willingness to live together in respect and mutual appreciation.

South Africa is a land of many voices, many customs, and many expressions of life and belief. From the languages spoken to the ways people gather, from the foods prepared to the rituals observed, there is richness in every group whether Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Sotho, Venda, Afrikaans, English, Indian, Coloured, or other cultures as well. Each culture has something to teach, something to offer, something to inspire, and when we celebrate these differences with sincerity, we are not only showing gratitude for what makes others unique but we are also allowing our own perspective to grow deeper and wider. Through celebration, we learn humility, we learn joy, and we learn that no one culture holds all truth or beauty but that each one is a glimpse into the vast creativity of humanity created in the image of God.

Loving people regardless of where they originally come from is not always easy, especially in a world where fear and misunderstanding often rise from what is unfamiliar. But the example of Jesus Christ shows us another way. He did not love based on nationality, status, background, or tradition. He loved because love is His nature and love is His command. He crossed cultural lines. He spoke to those rejected by society. He healed those who were seen as outsiders, and He welcomed people from every walk of life. His love was not selective. It was generous, and it was willing to be uncomfortable for the sake of connection and redemption. This kind of love does not come from us naturally. It comes from a heart transformed by the knowledge that we too have been loved with that same grace and mercy.

To love as Jesus loved means to look beyond what separates us and to see what connects us. It means we do not hold prejudice. We do not assume superiority. We do not build walls of division in our minds or hearts. It means being willing to learn, to listen, to step into the experience of others with compassion and curiosity instead of fear or pride. This kind of love invites people in. It creates space at the table. It allows others to be fully themselves without needing to become like us first. It honours heritage. It respects difference, and it sees the fingerprints of God in every culture and in every individual.

Heritage Day should not be a once-a-year celebration that fades the next morning. It should be a reminder of how we are meant to live every day. With open hearts and open hands, with curiosity rather than judgment, with gratitude for the richness that others bring into our lives. It should remind us that no one group is complete on its own. That we are better together, and that our differences do not have to divide us but can actually make us stronger if we allow love to lead the way. It is a time to reflect on the pain of the past and to commit to a future where we walk forward not in uniformity but in unity, in a shared determination to honour each other as human beings worthy of love, respect, and dignity.

When we celebrate each heritage, we are acknowledging that the image of God is expressed in many ways, through many histories, and through many ways of life. No single tradition captures all of His beauty, but together, when we stand side by side, when we laugh and sing and share stories, when we eat from each other’s tables and learn each other’s songs, we begin to see a fuller picture of the humanity that Jesus came to save and to love. Loving people as Jesus loved is not a feeling. It is a choice, a daily act of seeing people as valuable even when we do not understand them, of giving grace even when we do not agree, of choosing peace even when division would be easier. It is the decision to live with arms wide open, not just on Heritage Day but every day.

In South Africa, a land that has known both division and hope, both pain and healing, this kind of love is not only possible. It is necessary. We cannot build a just future without honouring the past, and we cannot honour the past without valuing those who carry it forward in their stories, in their skin, in their songs, in their languages, in their traditions. Embracing one another across cultural lines is not weakness. It is strength. It is a testimony to the world that love is more powerful than fear and that dignity is not reserved for the few but belongs to all created by the hand of God. Let Heritage Day be more than a celebration. Let it be a commitment to live differently, to see one another differently, to speak and act and walk in a way that reflects the love of Christ who welcomed all and excluded none, who gave all so that every tribe and tongue and nation might stand together as one family, united not by sameness but by love that never fails.