Hawaii's culture, customs, traditions and aloha spirit will be showcased and celebrated in one of Hawaii's most-prominent events, the Aloha Festivals.
This Year's Theme
The mission of the Aloha Festivals is to preserve and perpetuate Hawaiian culture and to celebrate the diverse customs, traditions and aloha spirit of Hawaii. This year's Festival theme is Hula - Let the Story be Told.
The theme was chosen carefully and is focused on "celebrating hula and presenting Hawaii's history and culture through this unique art form."
Here is how the festival organizers explain their choice of this year's theme.
For nearly two thousand years an oral education has been handed down from generation to generation. Woven into innumerable lines of chant was and is the history of the Hawaiian people. Through extremely practiced oratorical and memorization skills, legends, genealogies, epic battles, love stories and more have survived the passages of time.Ka leo ola o ke aloha - The story lives through love.
- Kumu Hula Kaha'i TopolinskiLove for one another, love for our history and love for our culture fuels the desire of the Hawaiian psyche to perpetuate and protect all that is sacred. Everything exists in the word, the chant, the song, the mind and yet a physical representation makes the intangible tangible.
Hula is the expression, the visual of the chant and the story. One can tell a story without hula, but the hula cannot be presented without the song, its foundation. However, dance breathes life and beauty into an already well-maintained narrative. Join us as we share with you the essence of Hawai'i through the hula - let the story be told.
History of the Aloha Festivals
What is known today as Aloha Festivals was created in 1946 as Aloha Week, a cultural celebration of Hawaii's music, dance and history, intended to preserve the unique traditions of Hawaii. It took a year to plan the first Aloha Festivals, and in the fall of 1947 the festivities began. Since then, the celebration has expanded to include over 300 events on six Hawaiian islands over a two-month period. In 1991 the name of the celebration was changed to Aloha Festivals.The Festivals now encompass all of the many and varied cultures of the people of Hawaii, be they Hawaiian, Japanese, Filipino or any other races that call Hawaii their home.
Each year, nearly 30,000 volunteers participate in the staging of the events, which are attended by nearly one million people, in what has been called "a festival truly of the people of Hawaii by the people of Hawaii."
Fall was chosen for the Aloha Festivals for two primary reasons; first to honor the makahiki, the ancient Hawaiian time of music, dance and feasting when war was not permitted, and second to attract visitors to the islands after the summer rush. Today, the celebration has become an island tradition.
The festivals are funded through appropriated funds from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, corporate sponsorships and private donations, as well as through the sale of Aloha Festivals ribbons and other merchandise.
View our gallery of photos of the 2008 Aloha Festivals Floral Parade.
NEXT PAGE> 2009 Oahu Calendar of Events
