Moʻolelo by Leilehua Yuen –
By this time, Judith Fox-Goldstein, of the University of Hawai`i at Hilo, had heard of our festival. Hugely supportive, she wrote a CPEP grant for us, which was approved for $10,000. The festival was again held at Mo`oheau Bandstand.
On May 1, at 2:00 am, Puakea and I loaded the panel truck we had rented, and took tables, chairs, kāhili, food, flowers, foliage, and all the other accouterments of a Lei Day festival. At 5:00 am we parked beside the Mo`oheau Bandstand and began setting up.
Dian began weaving coconut fronds around the posts and decorating them with fresh flowers. One of my lei making students showed up and helped her. I had pretty much denuded my yard for foliage. This would be our largest festival to date. The rain squalls swept sideways through the bandstand, blowing our decorations mauka. The featherwork and other fragile items had to be returned to the safety of the truck. It eventually cleared up just before the ceremonies started, and we quickly grabbed the regalia for the Royal Court and hurried it into place.
The Royal Court provided by Connections Charter School was charming. Each of the island princesses had an escort carrying her kāhili. Our ceremony brought tears to the mayor’s eyes. Keoki Kahumoku was again our headliner. Aunty Nona Beamer was scheduled to be our Queen, but her health again prevented her presence, so her friend Bea Larson stood in for her, reading a letter from her.
Mayor Harry Kim attended, and a mayoral proclamation was read proclaiming May 1 as Lei Day in Hawai`i County. Another was read recognizing Aunty Nona’s contributions to Hawaiian culture.
We demonstrated lei making and held a lei making competition; kūpuna dancers as well as mākua, youth, and keiki dancers performed. Hula ki`i was performed as well. In all, about 75 people participated in putting on the festival.
After breaking down the festival at 4:00 pm, with the help of Dian, Puakea, and several of the Mo`oheau houseless, to whom we gave the leftovers from snacks we had brought for the Royal Court, we loaded everything into the truck, returned all the rented and borrowed items, and returned the truck. We had survived!
~Leilehua Yuen