PUHI — The warmth of the keawe fire seared through the nip of the clear Puhi evening as students from the Kaua‘i Community College Hawaiian Studies Performing Arts Club stoked the logs in the imu. This is the second year
PUHI — The warmth of the keawe fire seared through the nip of the clear Puhi evening as students from the Kaua‘i Community College Hawaiian Studies Performing Arts Club stoked the logs in the imu.
This is the second year the performing arts club has hosted imu service for turkeys that graced yesterday’s Thanksgiving feasts, and one student noted that the amount of turkeys they started receiving in the afternoon exceeded last year’s amount.
While moving the keawe logs around with a specially designed apparatus labeled “The Claw,” the students checked the warming rocks for any that would be potentially explosive.
Kaleo Stevens, president of the KCC organization, said preparations for the imu started about noon, Tuesday. The pit had already been dug, but had to be cleaned out, she said.
Newspapers, kindling, and the wood had to be placed along with the rocks that would eventually help to steam the load of Thanksgiving goodies.
Following that task, Stevens said a group went over to the lo‘i across the KCC Performing Arts Center to cut banana stalks and prepare them for placement in the imu. The stalks help to keep the steam in the imu.
Ti leaves were harvested from the garden in back of the KCC Hawaiian Studies hale, and cleaned in preparation for the loading of the imu.
Stevens said the fires were lit about four in the afternoon, and the imu would take about three hours before it was ready to accept the turkeys, banana, taro, and sweet potatoes.
A group of about a dozen club members along with a handful of students from Hanalei School readied themselves for the overnight vigil as medleys of Hawaiian music were accompanied by the sound of ‘ukulele.
As patrons dropped off their turkeys, the prevailing atmosphere of ‘ohana encouraged people to stand around and chat, while inside one of the classrooms instructor Dennis Chun conducted his Hawaiian astronomy class among the 50 turkeys that had been neatly wrapped with cotton twine and marked with a clothespin inscribed with the owner’s name.
Last year was the first year the club offered up the imu service, and under the tutelage of Chun, segments of the preparation process filmed by local videographer Katie Beer were featured on A&E Network as part of the “Best Small Town Holidays” program, the imu process being tagged along with the Lights on Rice holiday parade.
Once the turkeys had been loaded into the imu, the group settled into their overnight vigil before unpacking the imu at 6:30 Thanksgiving morning.
Stevens said patrons started picking up their cooked birds from 7 a.m.
Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@pulitzer.net.
