Why May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii
Uncle Rudy, me, dad Romeo, cousin Jonathan. Photo: Gerald Farinas.
When I was growing up in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu, May 1 was never just the start of another month. For us, it was the biggest day of the year because May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.
My earliest memories of this go all the way back to kindergarten at Mayor Joseph J. Fern Elementary School. I can still see the courtyard filled with parents and teachers, the smell of fresh plumeria and flaming red torch ginger hanging in the humid air, and all of us kids lined up in our Aloha shirts and muumuu.
My journey through these annual pageants continued as I moved on to Princess Miriam K. Likelike Elementary School for first and second grade. We spent weeks practicing for the big day, learning hula from a visiting kumu hula or hula teacher. You had to know your steps and your hand motions because you were representing the school and your family.
Later, from third through sixth grade at Aliamanu Elementary School, the stakes felt even higher. The whole pageant was a tribute to the islands, and at Aliamanu, I actually got to be part of the Royal Court. I served as the kahuna nui, the high priest. I was chosen because I could pronounce the Hawaiian chant correctly. Mrs. Shimoda even had to pre-record my Hawaiian language welcome chant so it could be broadcast over the speakers as I officially opened the pageant with the blessing, barefoot in my kihei draped across my shoulder.
Looking back, there is a bit of irony in how my life turned out. Today, I am a professional kahu here in Chicago, which is a role very similar to a kahuna. I serve in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which was the religion of the missionary colonists who came to Hawaii. It is a strange circle to travel, moving from a kid chanting at a school pageant to an elder commissioner in a denomination with that specific history.
The tradition of Lei Day started back in the late 1920s because of a guy named Don Blanding. He was a poet who wrote for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin daily newspaper and realized that while everyone else in the world was doing May Day with maypoles and ribbons, Hawaii had something much better to celebrate. He thought we should have a day dedicated to the lei because it represents the heart of the islands.
His friend Grace Tower Warren was the one who came up with the famous catchphrase "May Day is Lei Day," and the first official celebration kicked off in 1928.
It was such a hit that the Governor of Hawaii made it official a year later. That was also when Leonard Hawk wrote that song we all grew up singing. The one that says, “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, with garlands of flowers in the sun.” If you grew up there, that song is basically burned into your brain.
What makes it special is how each island has its own identity through a color and a flower. Even as a kid, you learned that Oahu is yellow for the ilima and the Big Island is red for the lehua. You would see the purple of Kauai and the pink of Maui, and it taught us to respect the unique beauty of every part of our home.
Even now, whenever May 1 rolls around, I can’t help but think of those mornings in Kalihi and Salt Lake-Moanalua. I can almost hear the ukulele and see the vibrant colors of the lei being draped over shoulders. Seeing the Lei Queen and her princesses draped in those beautiful colors was like watching history come to life right there on the blacktop.
It was not just a school program. It was how we learned who we were and how we shared the aloha spirit with everyone around us.
