Short & Sweet:

In Honor of Lei Day

Take home a short story and a sweet, simple craft.

Lei Day is May 1st! Come to the Main Children's Room to pick up your Short & Sweet Craft Kit with a QR code for the reading of a beautiful story and a Lei craft in honor of Lei Day. This month's kit features Pig Boy: A Trickster Tale from Hawaiʻi.

Kits are available starting May 1st, while supplies last.

"The lei known the world over, is a symbol of aloha. Great care is taken into the gathering of the materials to make a lei. After the materials are gathered, they are prepared and then fashioned into a lei. As this is done, the mana (or spirit) of the creator of the lei is sewn or woven into it. Therefore, when you give a lei, you are giving a part of you. Likewise, as you receive a lei, you are receiving a part of the creator of the lei.

In 1927, Poet laureate, Don Blanding, thought that Hawai‘i should have a day set aside to celebrate and recognize the custom of giving and receiving lei. While working at the Honolulu Star Bulletin, Don discussed the idea with “Kamaaina Kolumn” columnist Grace Tower Warren. She enthusiastically embraced the idea and suggested that the day should be May Day and coined the phrase May Day is Lei Day. Inspired by their zeal, Leonard “Red” and Ruth Hawk, a musician, composed May Day is Lei Day in Hawai‘i. This song resonates throughout every Lei Day celebration in the State of Hawai‘i.

In 1929, May 1 of each year was proclaimed as "May Day is Lei Day in Hawai‘i,” by Governor Wallace R. Farrington – to be observed “by all true friends of Hawai‘i.” It is a day of celebration – not a State holiday."

From https://www.honolulu.gov/

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