The Lei Day Tradition Hawaii Hasn’t Sold Yet

Lei Day turns 98 on Friday, May 1, with the tradition still intact. Many lei events throughout Hawaii are complimentary, and that alone makes it among Hawaii’s standouts. Kapiolani Park on Oahu fills the same way it always has, with hula, music, Hawaiian cultural protocol, and rows of exquisite lei laid out for anyone to walk up and admire. That’s similar to other community events you’ll find on outer islands.

This day still feels like it belongs to the people who live here and to those who visit and love it, too. At Kapiolani Park, you bring a blanket or folding chairs, sit under the ironwood trees, watch halau rotate through the bandstand, and wander through the lei exhibit. Visitors show up and blend in, and none of that has changed, even as the rest of the lei experience in Hawaii has shifted in ways readers have already seen coming.

Lei Day started with a newspaper column in 1928.

The idea came from Don Blanding, a poet and writer at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, who proposed a holiday honoring the Hawaiian lei in a column. His colleague Grace Tower Warren suggested tying it to May 1 and then coined the line that stuck, “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.”

The first celebration happened that same year in the lobby of Bank of Hawaii. It was made official by Governor Wallace R. Farrington in 1929. As the event outgrew the bank lobby, it moved to City Hall, then to Kapiolani Park, where it has remained. Almost a century later, the structure is still largely in place. The Lei Court still presides, the contest still draws hundreds of entries, and May 2 still ends with lei placed on the graves of the alii.

Oahu sets the scale of Lei Day in Hawaii.

Kapiolani Park is its anchor. During the day, everything is in one place, from the Lei Court to the bandstand to the lei-making demonstrations. There is also the Hawaiian Airlines May Day concert at the Bishop Museum featuring Keauhou, Robert Cazimero, Kealii Reichel, Halau Na Kamalei o Lililehua, and Halau Kealaokamaile. On Sunday, the tradition continues at the Hawaii Theater with Kalani Pe’a and his 8th Lei Day Concert. Both events are ticketed.

A number of hotels and venues have added their own Lei Day programming too, some of it packaged for visitors who want something scheduled and contained. None of that replaces the park.

Maui keeps its Lei Day tradition.

The Lei Day Heritage Festival with Hale Hoikeike at the Bailey House in Wailuku runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is smaller, and you can enjoy it without having to plan around a schedule. People sit down, make lei, watch others make them, and stay as long as they want. There is a contest, music, and exhibits, too.

Kauai and the Big Island feature Lei Day events.

Kauai’s main public event tradition takes place at the Kauai Museum from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., centered on the 44th annual Irmalee and Walter Pomroy Lei Contest. It’s something BOH editors have enjoyed together with other residents and visitors for decades.

Hilo’s 21st Lei Day Festival takes place at Kalakaua Park and includes music, hula, lei-making demonstrations, plus a lei contest. There are other events on all the islands, too. We suggest checking the

The closing visitors rarely see may be at the heart of the day.

On May 2, the winning lei from Kapiolani Park is taken to Mauna Ala (Royal Mausoleum) and Kawaiahao Church, where the Lei Court places it on the graves of the alii. Oli (prayer) and Hula are part of it, and the lei displayed the day before are used again in a unique way.

The Lei Day tradition holds even while everything around the lei changes.

The changes readers have seen are outside this day. Hawaii airport lei stands are tied up in issues. Many lei that visitors encounter are now made with imported flowers because the local supply is much harder to get. The free lei greeting that used to meet visitors at the airport is now something you pay for, if it is even available.

None of that has disrupted Lei Day in Hawaii itself. Many celebrations stay free, open, and run the same way, which is why this enduring Hawaii travel keepsake still carries more weight for many visitors than anything else.

You can walk through Kapiolani Park and see something that looks familiar, then go to the airport and see how much has shifted. Hawaii has put money behind other cultural welcome programs, but Lei Day is still the version that does not need to be explained, packaged, or sold to visitors.

Two years from now, it will be the 100th Lei Day. The question is whether everything around it keeps changing while this stays the same.

Have you been to Lei Day at Kapiolani Park, or to a smaller celebration on a neighbor island? What has changed for you, and what has stayed exactly the same?

Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii.