May Day is Lei Day in Hawai‘i, and at the Royal Sonesta Kaua‘i Resort Lihu‘e, lei were in all their splendor Sunday at the Kaua‘i Museum Walter &Irmalee Pomroy Lei Contest and Keiki La Lei Contest in the resort’s ballroom.
“This is a forever lei,” said Marina Pascua of the Kaua‘i Family and Community Eduation Association, who was among the volunteers helping guests string their own lei creations. “We haven’t had the lei competition for three years. This lei I have, today is my No. 18 lei created during the COVID-19 pandemic. I also taught Margo Hashimoto how to make one that’s double-sided. You can wear it either way and it looks good.”
Pascua’s lei was made from fabric ribbons selected to create resemblances to live flowers.
Other lei on display and in the process of completion included live or dried plant material vying for special community awards.
“These are my mother’s orchids,” said Magic Calig, who described herself as “from the Eastside in the final year at Kapa‘a Middle School. These are just from our yard where my mother’s orchids are going off right now.”
Lyah Kama Drake, the Kaua‘i Museum’s education outreach officer, said it was quite all right since lei are supposed to draw on items found in backyards to minimize the encroachment and damage on public grounds.
“Look at these blue jade blooms,” Kama Drake said. “They came from contestants Ava and Hendriz Gushman’s yard in Kalaheo. They used what they needed and donated the remainder for the Kaua‘i FCE ladies to use in creating lei for customers.”
Hilina‘ikananiokamahina Kahaunaele was busy creating her lei using forever plant Spanish moss and ti, and reserving a supply of carefully selected plumeria and stephanotis for what grandma described as “the Hawaiian part.”
“This is her very first lei competition,” said Ilima Rivera, Hilina‘i’s grandmother. “She is my mo‘opuna, and is learning about lei.”
A steady and growing stream of people flowed through the ballroom where the competition lei were set out on tables spaced out to accommodate the large gathering. Lei admirers leisurely browsed through the bountiful offerings, stopping to bid on a selected lei or getting a photograph with their smartphones.
“People have been waiting,” said Maryanne Kusaka of the museum’s board of trustees, who chatted with Kaua‘i Museum Executive Director Chucky Boy Chock. “It’s been three years, and the people are glad to be able to enjoy this again.”
May Day is Lei Day is an annual tribute to a culturally iconic symbol, states the Culture Trip website. Significant through history in Polynesia and Hawai‘i, the term “May Day is Lei Day” is credited to a Honolulu Star-Bulletin writer and poet, Don Blanding, who coined the phrase during the first Lei Day celebration held on O‘ahu in 1927.
The celebration became statewide two years later, and his co-worker, Grace Tower Warren, decided that Lei Day should be observed on May Day, popularizing the phrase, “May Day is Lei Day in Hawai‘i Nei.”
Full results of the Kaua‘i Museum lei competition and more photos will appear in a future issue of TGI.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
