Culture & History

The first day of May is Lei Day in Hawaii

The first of May is a celebration of lei in Hawaiian culture. Last year, we were fortunate to join in the annual celebration at Marriott’s Waiohai Beach Club on Kauai. We enjoyed seeing a lei making competition, a royal court procession, hula and cultural presentations. See our follow up post for interesting information we learned about the Hawaiian lei.

Kapuna Janet Kahalekomo — Kupuna Janet Kahalekomo was honored with several leis.

If you visit Hawaii during Lei Day, check local papers for island events. Though Lei Day is May 1st, it may be celebrated on another day — particularly if May 1st falls on a weekday, some of the big celebrations may occur on a weekend near May 1st.

Here’s our video from last year’s Lei Day. (Email subscribers, click here to access the Lei Day video.)

Also, please enjoy this colorful Lei Day slideshow from our photo collection.

Sheila Beal

Sheila Beal is the founder and editor of Go Visit Hawaii. You can connect with Sheila Beal on Twitter, Go Visit Hawaii on Facebook, or Instagram.

3 comments

Janet says:
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what a beautiful, unique and interesting experience that looks like! thanks for sharing!
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1. sheila says:
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  It was really interesting.
  
  I wish we had smell-a-blog capabilities so that you could have enjoyed the floral lei scents. 🙂
  Reply
  1. Janet says:
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    oh, me too! I bet it smelled wonderful!
    Reply