May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii.

May day is also called Lei day in Hawaii, its a popular and fun way to cherish someone you love and care for with a beautiful hand-made lei.

The origins of lei making started with the early Polynesians and settlers to the Hawaiian islands to honor their gods by twining greens into wreaths and making these as offerings. They also used the wreaths and flowered lei made of fragrant ginger blooms to decorate and adorn their bodies. Other fragrant greens used included maile and hala leaves which were used extensively to celebrate various rites, special occasions and daily wear.

This concept of giving a lei to someone special was then popularized with the influx of tourism throughout the Hawaiian islands around the 19th and 20th century. Presenting a lei during the arrival or departure of a love one was shared and communicated as a sign of affection and aloha and still is still used currently as a symbol of affection and aloha.

Leis are now made with many different and aromatic flowers to include tropical plumeria, jasmine, ginger, roses, gardenias, tuba rose and scented orchid blooms to create aromatic and beautiful displays. Every flower and color combination is available and sold through different wholesale and retail outlets. Leis are also made with with many types of organic materials including seeds, shells, fabric and ribbon along with a variety of greenery to create different looks and texture and patterns.

(A gorgeous tutu or grandmother wears and elaborate collection yellow, orange and red flowered leis at a hula performance in Hawaii)

Green material used for the leis above include aromatic maile leaves, ferns and seeds pods, along with the very popular plumeria well loved for its wonderful aroma. Fresh leis are made and worn as adornment for each and every hula performances like the dancer above performing at the Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo.

Even elaborate large leis are made to adorn horses in many of the annual parades throughout the islands. Here leis elaborate leis are created for the horse and pau rider for the annual Merrie Monarch parade in Hlo, Hawaii.

Lei day celebrations today in East Hawaii are marked with lei and craft demonstrations, live music and performances and other festivities celebrating this well loved tradition. It seems so appropriate for the first day of May to celebrate spring and a beautiful day by making a lei and giving to someone special in your life..

©Noel Morata, All rights reserved

Come and visit my photography website at http://noelmorata.photoshelter.com/

The Merrie Monarch Festival - A weeklong hula festival

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The whole week right after Easter day celebrations in Hilo, Hawaii is marked with the Merrie Monarch festival which covers everything and anything focused on the beautiful hula dance, competitions and various events celebrating the hula.

This is one of our most beautiful festivals to watch not only for the gorgeous dancing, wonderful live music and colorful outfits, but also for the gorgeous flower leis, head pieces and organic plant materials used as adornments. In the traditional styles of performances, traditional wear is all handmade from local materials including the coloring of costumes. This dancer below wears a crown of palm pods with indigenous flowers and moss for her hairpiece decoration.





Every day is set with amazing hula performances at many venues around Hilo town and many hula halau (hula schools) coming from all over the world converge to enjoy, compete and perform in the festivities. You will see some of the best hula performances in the world at this week long celebration of hula.

The first day of peformances starts on Easter Sunday and is a called the Ho'olaule'a (Hawaiian celebration or event). The event features well known local hula halau (hula schools) from Hawaii Island and is a favorite event with local audiences. Usually the auditorium is packed with audience members supporting their favorite hula halau with loud cheers and whistles. The energy level and spirit of Aloha is alive with the hula dancing along with audience participation.

Many hula halau include young keiki (children) dancing in their age groups and hula performances are encouraged at all ages from young to old. But the keiki hula performances are very popular and fun to watch at the Ho'olaule'a show.

Traditional hula dancing known as hula kahiko is a very popular dance to see and experience. Not only are the costumes handmade, but also their adornments, leis and musical instruments are hand done for each specific performance. Every part of a dance and costume is presented with authentic details with time consuming practise and performance. This is to present a hula dance to the audience so they can experience an authenthic and ancient hula performance.

The modern dance style called hula Auana is also popular with colorful outfits and a beautiful and expressive flowing style. Most hulas dances are typically done in this modern style of dance with popular Hawaiian music performed with an ukulele, guitar and base guitar combination and singers complementing the dance.

 

Here are a few more performance highlights of last night's event.

The Merrie Monarch Ho'olaulea hula performances in Hilo are just the start of a week long celebration of hula dancing at its finest. The rest of the week comprises of beautiful hula demonstrations, crafts fairs, singing competitions, various competitive dance performances and a colorful parade with the champions of the hula events.



To view more images of this event, please visit my flickr site below

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633140716967/with/8610627747/



A hui hou (until we meet again) - hopefully at another beautiful hula performance at the Merrie Monarch festival in Hilo.

Big Island Chocolate Festival

 

 

 

The cacao plant is starting to make big inroads in the chocolate market on the Big Island of Hawaii. This relatively new commodity is driving huge demand for locally grown cacao and creating new markets in  bean to bar, chocolate purveyors and chocolatiers, secondary finished products, restaurant inspired chocolate creations and food fanciers using the raw product to create some amazing new chocolate inspirations.


Supporting this new fledging crop, the newly formed Kona Chocolate Association was established to promote and educate the general public and buying market of locally grown Hawaiian cacao. The association's main focus is to educate and create outreach opportunities for cacao and chocolate products. The association created a new venue, the Big Island Chocolate Festival, which is celebrating its second year of Chocolate festivities, seminars and gala events. Partnering with hospitality, educational groups and local media to bring more  awareness and interest in the marketplace, this festival has quickly become a destination spot for chocolatiers and their supporters to enjoy all the activities centered on cacao and chocolate creation.

 

 

 

The chocolate festival is a chocoholic fantasy dream come true with alot of chocolate inspired activities geared to the enthusiasts. This three day celebration of everything centering around chocolate included chocolate demonstrations, chocolate farm tours, chocolate competions and of course an ample opportunity to see and savor chocolate at its best.

 

 

Student participation from the culinary schools around Hawaii brought out the best in group collaborations and imaginative creations. The attention to detail and focused concentration of the students to make nothing but the best shows the anticipation and excitement to the culinary events.

Ah, it was so hard to just pick one as a favorite dessert or savory presentation an the gala night presentation. Chocolate preparations were all on display from chocolate confectioners, bean to bar creators, chefs and chocolatiers were all putting on an amazing show.

Fortunately, a judging panel chose sweet and savory winners with the culinary team at the Fairmont Orchid receiving both sweet and savory award. They also won the people's choice award for the delicious sample below,cocoa dusted spicy ahi cone with truffle orange vinagrette and chocolate nibs.

Here's a sample of other sweet and savory dishes and chocolate inspirations from the gala evening event.

You get a delicous bite with this chocolate infused Kau pork belly from the Hilton Waikoloa, made with 72% Waialua chocolate from Oahu, pickled daikon and carrots and chile cilantro in a chocolate char siu sauce

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Executive chef Donald Wressel from Guittard chocolate was busy working on a floral chocolate fantasy masterpiece. It was amazing, but I'm wondering who got away with this forty pounder at the end of the event, wish I had a big enough bag to haul this puppy away!

The beautiful floral details to this chocolate sculpture.

A very odd and yet delicious mixture of sensations presented was the Big Island Hog Balls made with all local ingredients including nice big chunks of Hawaiian bacon, I think I polished off a good third of this platter alone!

The sold out event at the Fairmont Orchid was truly a chocolate connoisseur's tasting experience, and it also raised funding for equipment at a local Hawaiian culinary school and a community amphitheature at a charter school at Kaleakekua.





Its always great to support and sample locally made ingredients and finished products like Hawaiian grown chocolate and the Kona chocolate association and their supporters are making great efforts to promoting Hawaiian products and events so that more people can appreciate these products.


To see more images of the three day event, please visit my flickr page.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633085707831/

Taste of the Hawaiian Range–A Foodie Extravaganza

For foodies living or visiting Hawaii island, this Friday’s Taste of the Hawaiian range at the Hilton Waikoloa Village was an amazing tasting event to experience.



(The audience awaits anxiously for the conch shell to announce the start of this tasting event)



With over 35 of Hawaii’s best restaurants participating, the entire event was a feast for the eyes and of course the tummy. Each restaurant was given a different portion of locally grown grass-fed beef and they delivered amazing tasty pupus (appetizers) to wow the audience.



(Town restaurant presents its Hawaiian version of shepherds pie with mutton)





The Taste of the Hawaiian Range is an event that focuses on promoting and educating audiences to support local production and visit markets, restaurants and providers of locally grown produce and sustainable grass-fed beef.










A few audience members were skittish about trying beef mountain oysters that were presented by the Honolulu Burger Company, but those that were brave enough to take a bite were pleasantly surprised by the onolicious and varied textures from this pupu (appetizer)



(Mountain oysters from Honolulu Burger company)





There were many produce providers and growers in attendance including local CSA’s that service the West Hawaii county markets. The variety of food grown in Hawaii is outstanding and quite amazing when purchased fresh from the market to prepare a meal.







The Mauna Kea Beach Resort Hotel presents their cut of beef, oxtail soup and just-poured broth that smelled and tasted amazing – its all about the broth in this soup!







(A detail shot of the oxtail soup below, what a taste!)






Even edible fuschia flowers were presented on this delicious manapua dish from 
The Blue Dragon made with sweet guava and bok choy kimchee.







Lots of vendors were participating at this locally grown event including coffee and tea growers, candies, fruit and vegetable farmers, honey and even a saddle maker Ka Hana No’eau showing their hand made saddles below.





This popular event seems to be getting bigger every year and support for locally grown produce, providers, markets and restaurants is clearly becoming a norm on Hawaii island. When there are so many amazing restaurants supporting island growers, it’s a nice way of keeping the local economy thriving – one tasty bite at a time.