Beautiful Hilo and local celebrations, photo Friday
You can’t beat being in Hawaii on a gorgeous day especially when special celebrations happen in towns like Hilo. Hawaii Beautiful moments and photographic opportunities abound when an event or holiday occurs and everyone dresses up for the occasion. In this case, Lei Day celebrations commemorate the beautiful crafting of the lei, its history and cultural significance to hula, celebrating significant occasions and really acknowledging the people in your life with a lei of colorful and sweetly scented flowers.
Here are some of the wonderful images captured on this day and the beautiful people who come together and share their Aloha and love of this tradition.
(Starting the Lei Day festival with a presentation of greenery made with sweetly scented maile leaves)
Leis made with aromatic flowers like plumeria, ginger and puaeinikeni fills the air with wonderful fragrance and adorns each wearer delightful fragrance lasting most of the day. The beautiful puakenikeni flower below used in many lei decorations starts out pure white when it’s just picked, and then turns to different shades of yellow to orange throughout the day.
(A gorgeous tutu or grandmother dons an elaborate lei of pikaki and large fresh orchids in her hair)
Yes, local events like Lei Day in Hawaii are worth gathering and participating in all the free and entertaining performances with hula and music, demonstrations and some delicious local foods enticing you to try them out. Making a lei at this event and giving it to someone special is what this day and celebration is all about.
Have you participated in Lei day or received a lei before, please share your personal experiences about what it felt like to receive a lei for the first time in the comments below. Thanks for visiting today, I hope you enjoyed this post on Beautiful Hilo and local celebrations, photo Friday, if so, please do share this with any of the social media buttons around the post. Thank you.
Also, to see more images of Lei Day celebrations in Hilo, Hawaii, please visit my Flickr page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633388989197/
Beautiful pictures!
One day I will experience a celebration in Hawaii, until then posts like this will have to allow me to do so vicariously
I’m surprised you haven’t visited any of our islands, it’s a fairly easy flight from your neck of the woods 🙂