Sipping Kona Coffee In the Morning, Hula in the Afternoon
The Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii starts on Easter Sunday, continuing the legacy of a cultural tradition spanning back for thousands of years. This living showcase of cultural knowledge as presented in hula and mele (songs and chants) is Hawaii’s largest hula festival.
Named in honor of King David Kalakaua, who reigned from 1874 to 1891, the Merrie Monarch Festival commemorates his efforts to revive hula and other Hawaiian traditions. Kalakaua’s1883 Coronation at Iolani Palace featured men pounding on gourd drums and women performing hula wreathed with the traditional ferns and flowers, drawing the wrath of prominent missionary families.
Still Kalakaua encouraged the revival of Hawaiian culture and traditions, and his perpetuation and preservation of the art of hula lives on today in the Merrie Monarch Festival. The tradition of hula is part of the larger renaissance of Hawaiian culture in the islands and among people of Hawaiian blood worldwide.
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The week-long festival and three day hula competition includes a parade, craft fairs, art exhibits, demonstrations, and of course the hula performances.
Hula is the Hawaiian way of telling stories about the world around them including the fish and birds, mountains and ocean, and all of the natural elements as well as their gods and demigods. Their stories of love and adventurous journeys, stories of heartbreak and loss, and hula giving thanks for all that they have.
The Merrie Monarch Festival brings together a variety of hula masters and other Hawaiian cultural practitioners that share in this tradition perpetuating their cultural knowledge preserved in the hula dances. The Merrie Monarch Festival has strict standards that ensure all performances are culturally accurate.
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