Save this date to celebrate!
This year, Kamehameha Day will be celebrated on Saturday, 12 June 2010, at Iolani Palace Grounds. Those in Lahaina, Maui are also planning a gala event on Front Street. If You know what they are doing on the other Islands, please let everyone know. Keep this date open and attend. Updates will be posted.
Hau'oli La Moi Kamehameha
King Kamehameha Day is the only ali'i (royalty) holiday established during the monarchy and observed continually since its establishment by royal proclamation in 1871. The day is celebrated to honor King Kamehameha who unified the Hawaiian Islands and who stands as an exponent of Hawaiian self-determination. The first observance of this holiday was held on June 11, 1872. Kamehameha V designated June 11 as a public holiday to honor the memory of his great-grandfather who was the first ruler of the United Hawaiian Islands.
Kamehameha, Ka'ahumanu, and Vancouver were fast friends; so much so, that whenever Kamehameha and his favored wife got into jealousy fights, it was Vancouver that mediated and brought them to a peaceful resolution. Kamehameha picked the brains of Vancouver on how the Western world inter-related with each other and the standards that was accepted by them. Vancouver shared his views on how to make Hawai'i a viable economic stopover for foreign ships and on later voyages brought vegetables and animals that the west was used to eating. This strengthened Hawai'is leverage for barter.
Vancouver was horrified at the type of warfare used by Hawaiians and thought it brutal and ferocious. He then gave Kamehameha knowledge of how it was done in the western world. Kamehameha then incorporated it in his strategy. Kamehameha felt he needed to be on par with the western world and adapted it within his realm of power. Commerce among other world nations spurred him to create a banner that would be familiar or recognized by other countries, thus the unfurled flag of the Hawaiian Kingdom was seen on its foreign voyages.
Kamehameha had the distinction of po'olua, being that he had two fathers, Keoua (Kalani Kupuapai Kalaninui) and Kahekili (his birth father). His mother was Kekuiapoiwa (2nd). He stood close to 8 feet tall had about 23 recognized wives. the most sacred of his wives was Keopuolani, mother of Kamehameha II (Liholiho) and III (Kauikeaouli). Ka'ahumanu, his favorite, was considered in her youth as the most beautiful woman in all the islands and later was instrumental in the breaking of the eating kapu which allowed her as Kuhina nui to engage in law making that was reserved to the council of chiefs held in a heaiau which women were forbidden to enter.
It was Kamehameha the great, not to be confused with his uncle, Kamehamehanui, that catapulted the Hawaiian Kingdom into the western world which evolved into a recognized nation-state, the first non-caucasian western country into the Family of Nations with treaties of commerce and comity. It is through him that we maintain the status as peers to other countries throughout the world. We continue to honor him on this special day.
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