Seems like in the past few years, festivals of all types have been dominating the Honolulu Calendar Activities. Basically it was just those of certain ethnic groups who settled in Hawaii during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, along with the indigenous Native Hawaiians who celebrated Kamehameha Day and Aloha Week. The Chinese of course with their Chinese New Years, Japanese with their Cherry Blossom Festival and O-Bon Dances during the Summer. Some celebrated quietly among their own ethnic groups but recently have made their festivals more public and welcoming to outsiders. Ev [View Full Entry]

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El diez de Mayo, no special holiday, as far as I know. Just the day the Local Filipino Community in Hawaii happened to pick for their Annual Fiesta in the Park. The Parade started at ungodly hour of 8AM. Sorry don’t have any photos for you on this event. When I finally arrived at the Park, a Escrima or Kali demo was going on with guys in Kendo Armor battling each other with a pair of sticks each. Latter came performances, that seemed Catholic in nature, resembling scenes from Mexican movies of villagers honoring Jesus or Mary. Next were performances that [View Full Entry]

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A couple of weekends ago, was the 14th Annual Honolulu Festival. Though it’s in it’s 14th year here, admittedly I know very little of the origin and the purpose of this Festival and only started taking interest during the last 3 years. From what I can gather, it seems to be sponsored by a major Japanese Airline. The Convention Center is rented out for Cultural Performances by visiting Japanese Dancers and performers as well as various local ethnic groups such as Koreans, Filipino, Chinese, Okinawans, etc. As last year, an Australian Aboriginal and a Taiwanese Aboriginal Dance [View Full Entry]

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The people of Hawaii can be described as racially diversified, though the population of the mainland U.S. is beginning to appear so too. However, though the racial make-up of the rest of the U.S. seem to be predominately Caucasians, Blacks and Hispanics and a minority of Asians, in Hawaii, is seems more to be East Asians, Southeast Asians, Hawaiians and other Polynesians, Caucasians including Hispanics and Blacks. Also significant are the people of mixed racial background of the above mentioned races. Maybe some of the photos can do justice to what I’m trying to describe. It was take [View Full Entry]

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Holiday Season in Hawaii. No Snow, no White Christmas, no Problem. As reported in last years Blog complete with photos, titled, O Come All Ye Bruddas, The City spares very little expense and effort to convert our City Hall Complex into a Winter Wonderland, with mammoth statutes of Santa Claus, Frosty the Snow Man and Family and various Christmas Scenes. On top of this, the tree lighting ceremony is preceded by a Honolulu City Lights Parade, a fairly short parade through the main heart of downtown Honolulu, consisting of gaily decorated City Vehicles and marching bands from almost every majo [View Full Entry]

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A Thai celebration was held this past weekend at the Kapiolani Park across from Waikiki Beach. Though Thais are a small minority in Hawaii, their presence is well felt here as Thai Restaurants are plentiful and prospering in Hawaii. Having been to other states and countries, I know they are also popular there. Not surprising, it is my favorite ethnic cuisine and I love cuisine from almost any country. I remember my first taste of Thai food, which was the Barbeque Beef Salad. It had a strong peculiar flavor, at first I thought I made a mistake in ordering it. It [View Full Entry]

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A few weekends ago, The Foster Gardens celebrated it’s Hundredth Anniversary with entertainment and free admission to the Gardens. Also many speeches were made praising the founder, Mary Foster for her visionary and progressive actions especially for a woman living during that era. Many of the trees there were huge in girth and tall almost giving the impression they could be about 500 years old, but mostly likely were not, as the garden was only a 100. Many of the trees were from other tropical countries of Asia, South America and Africa. She was also credited with bringing back a cu [View Full Entry]

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Aloha Week started off with a Floral Parade this past Sat. and coincidentally a Thunderbird Airshow in the afternoon. From what I read a while back, the origin of Aloha Week was commercial rather based on any ancient Hawaiian tradition. Since September and October was a slow season for tourism, the tourist industry cooked up the concept of Aloha Week to draw tourists to Hawaii during the 1930 or so. As the title indicates, the word Aloha has many meanings such as Love, Affection, compassion, mercy, kindness, charity greeting, regards, sweetheart, loved one, beloved, loving to love, hello, [View Full Entry]

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Under The Ryukyuan Sun… they glanced back at their motherland, perhaps for the very last time, as they boarded the ships bounded for the scorching pineapple and sugar plantations of Hawaii, over a hundred years ago. The past weekend the descendents of these Okinawan immigrants celebrated their 25th Annual Parade and Festival in Waikiki. The event has grown so much, they could no longer use the existing bandstand in Kapiolani Park but constructed a special stage, with Diamond Head in it’s backdrop. Okinawa, along with the rest of the Ryukyu Islands was once an independent [View Full Entry]

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The 6th Annual Korean Festival was held at Kapiolani Park in Waikiki. According to the MC there are approximately 40,000 Koreans in Hawaii, not a very large number or maybe about 5% of the local population. They first arrived in Hawaii during the early 1900’s to work on the Pineapple plantations. It seems as if only during the 1980’s another large wave arrived, who pretty much maintained their language and culture and weren’t assimilated as the earlier wave. Instead of laborers, many opened up their own business, large and small. With the popularity of Korean Soaps a [View Full Entry]

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