Friday, May 1, 2009

May 1 is Lei Day

Happy Lei Day! In Hawaii, May Day is also known as Lei Day, and is set aside as a day to celebrate island culture in general and native Hawaiian culture in particular. May Day was invented by a poet and a local newspaper columnist in the 1920s, but since then it has been adopted by state and local government as well as by the residents, who now affectionately call it Lei Day.

The first Lei Day was celebrated in 1927 in Honolulu, and Leonard "Red" and Ruth Hawk composed "May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii," the traditional holiday song. I tried to find a nice version of "May Day is Lei Day" on YouTube without much success, but see if you can get a copy of the song to enjoy today.

As I look outside my window here in Seattle, its a beautiful day - what a perfect excuse to get outside and celebrate Lei Day - or May Day - no matter where you are today. For those of you in the Islands, be sure to stock up on beautiful leis today, and get one for me!

1 comment:

A Maui Blog said...

Aloha Natalani! I was going to blog about the Lei Day too but is a little behind on my blogging (I just got home from work). Anyway, if I am able to do the Lei Day post today I will link this up. (or even if I do the lei post later I will link this up too.)

:) Liza