Lei Day in Hawaii

The idea of this holiday was proposed in 1927 by the poet Don Blanding, who at that time worked in the newspaper Honolulu Star-Bulletin. He shared his idea with colleague, columnist Grace Warren, who came up with the slogan "May Day is Lei Day". In that year, Ruth and Leonard "Red" Hawke wrote the song of the same name.

Lei Day is celebrated on all the major islands of the Hawaiian archipelago. In Kapiolani Park in Honolulu there is a festive procession, in which representatives of different islands take part. In this case, each island has its own color and variety of lei.

Strictly speaking, lei is any garland of objects strung on a thread and used as a decoration of our time. But in the culture of Hawaii, lei are mostly flower wreaths that are worn around the neck of a person on arrival or before departure as a sign of their location.

Usually lei flowers are made using plumeria flowers, tuberoses, carnations, orchids, jasmine, as well as leaves of various plants, feathers, seeds, etc. The longest garland of lei was produced in 2008, its length was 5 336 feet (more than one and a half kilometers).

According to materials of calend.ru