The origin of the festival is credited to a poet and artist named Don Blanding who in 1928 noticed that most of the flower lei were being distributed at the Aloha Tower pier where boatloads of tourists were arriving on what they called "Boat Day."
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Although the custom of Hawaiians wearing flower garlands was first recorded by a member of Captain Cook's crew in 1779, Blanding voiced a common belief that the islanders were forgetting to adorn themselves while showering flowers on the visitors.  On May Day, he suggested, they ought to place the garlands around their own necks, on their own foreheads and in their own hatbands, as their ancestors did.  The first May Day was so successful that the following year it was made official and since then Hawaiian Islanders have been celebrating a special day devoted to the wearing of lei.

We began our Lei Day celebrations on the last weekend in April on Maui, where an annual Hula Festival was held in Wailea, with tables of lei for sale and for display and for judging.  Naturally, we each needed a lei for the day, and we took our time examining various lei of vanda orchids, carnations, plumeria  blossoms, shells and nuts and finally we decided on two made of the green leaves of the Hawaiian ti plant.  Chuck's was braided, and J.J.'s was braided  with  small roses of purple ti leaves interspersed.  We thought they were unusual, and noted that the lei-maker's fingers were bandaged.  She had been twisting and braiding these lei all day, and decided she could make no more.   Her name was Fannie Kanekoa and she came from the Waipi'o Valley, a remote and beautiful place on the island of Hawai'i.   When she won a Blue Ribbon in the Lei Contest, we congratulated her and she said rather sadly, "Now everyone will be making these lei."  For proof of that, see the photo to the left.  Her design is now a classic.

On O'ahu, May Day was celebrated from morning to night to morning the next day.   At 10 o'clock in the morning we were at the Bandstand in Kapiolani Park  awaiting the arrival of the Lei Queen and her Court of Princesses.  Expecting the usual swimsuit-clad ingenues competing for the title of Queen, we noticed the matronly ladies dressed in long flowing muu-muus and wearing exquisite lei, but didn't at first realize these women were the Lei Queen and Court, honored for their devotion to Hawai'ian culture.  Much to our delight the grandmotherly Queen was crowned by the previous year's Queen, who happened to be her 19 year-old granddaughter.  Actually, the lei queen title alternates among three generations of women. One year it's a young woman, next a mature woman, then a kupuna or grandmother.  Each of the grandmothers danced a hula in honor of her home island while being accompanied by the Royal Hawaiian Band (click to go to the website and then click on the titles to hear samples of the songs!).
 

The Queen wore cascading streams of a lei made of ilima blossoms so thin that it takes thousands to make one lei, and she was wearing several of them.   One of the Princesses wore strings of Ni'ihau shells, reportedly worth hundreds, even thousands, of dollars for their rarity, delicacy and beauty.   Elsewhere in the park, craft tables were set up and demonstrations were being given of the way to create a Hawaiian quilt, to make baskets of coconut fronds, to create a hatband lei of pheasant feathers, and of course  to string, twist, sew and braid flowers and leaves into exquisite lei.

Behind a wooden fence, judges were assembling to look over the lei entries submitted for the contest.  The lei were hung lengthwise along the fence,  by type and size and color, and they were continually sprayed with cool water to keep them fresh for the day. Children gave school programs on the Hawaiian culture, dancing ancient and modern hulas and chanting stories of the old days.

In the evening there was a concert at the Waikiki Shell, an amphitheater in the park.  All the seats had been sold but there was first-come seating on the grass slopes, where one could also picnic before the show.  We bought backrests at an ABC Variety store and fried chicken at the Colonel's and headed for the park that evening, where the Cazimero Brothers have been presenting an annual May Day show for over 25 years.  Click here to read about the brothers and to see videos (wait wait wait while they download!) and to learn how the Hawaians go about "Making a Lei."

Early the next morning we headed for the Nu'uanu Valley and the old cemeteries of Hawaii.  There the Lei Queen and her Court placed all the award-winning garlands on and around the tombs of the Hawaiian royalty and took part in a prayer service in a small chapel.  The picture we took there provides the background for this page.

After the May Day festivities we went to The Bishop Museum where they had lei-making classes using seeds, flowers or feathers.  J.J. came home from Hawai'i with a lei needle purchased at the Woolworth's store on Kalakaua Avenue in Honolulu and Chuck came home with a plumeria tree cutting purchased at one of the lei sellers' shops.  Now, whenever our plumeria tree is about to blossom, J.J. is ready with the lei needle and we have a fresh souvenir of our trip to Hawai'i.

As one of the Hawaiian "Aunties" explained while demonstrating how to make a flower lei, "In Hawai'i we think it is wrong to let a flower dry on the plant, -- it should be used!"
 

For more on Hawai'i, visit Chuck's Crossword Column on Hawai'ian words.

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