Merrie Monarch Festival Goals
In 1970, the Merrie Monarch Festival set new goals and objectives to replicate the idea of King David Kalakaua (the Merrie Monarch) to gather the best hula dancers from the Hawaiian Islands, revive the arts, and create a performance that is a rite, a celebration, and a statement about Hawai`i and its people.
The major goals of the Merrie Monarch Festival are the perpetuation, preservation, and promotion of the art of hula and the Hawaiian culture. The Merrie Monarch Festival is committed to:
- Perpetuating the traditional culture of the Hawaiian people
- Developing and augmenting a living knowledge of Hawaiian arts and crafts through workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions and performances of the highest quality and authenticity
- Reaching those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to participate
- Enriching the future lives of all of Hawaii’s children.
The festival is considered the world’s premier forum for people of all ages to display their skills and knowledge of the art of ancient and modern hula. Thousands of people in Hawaii and throughout the world are learning about the history and culture of Hawaii. The annual festival, which takes place on the Big Island, has led to a renaissance of the Hawaiian culture that is being passed on from generation to generation. A week of festivities include art exhibits, craft fairs, demonstrations, performances, a parade that emphasizes the cultures of Hawaii, and a three-day hula competition that has received worldwide recognition for its historic and cultural significance.
Life – Birds
The subject of this episode of Life
Some birds use color, song and ingenuity to win the hearts of their mates. Clarke’s grebes reaffirm their bond by performing a courtship dance that climaxes with the pair running on water in perfect synchrony. The male Vogelkop bowerbird employs bizarre rituals to impress females. The male decorates his bower with colourful jewels from the forest, and uses vocal mimicry to attract the attention of females. The marvellous spatuletail hummingbird performs extraordinary aerial courtship displays of fast-beating wings and super-long iridescent tail feathers.
The Red-tailed Tropicbird and White-tailed Tropicbird are regular breeders in the Hawaiian Islands. These graceful seabirds can be seen in many areas of the Hawaiian Islands, with the Red-tailed being more common in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands and the White-tailed more common in the main Hawaiian Islands. The world’s third tropicbird species, the Red-billed Tropicbird, visits the Hawaiian Islands on rare occasions. In this episode of Life the red-billed tropic bird, shown bringing a meal back to its chick, uses its aerial agility to outmaneuver and evade attacking frigate birds.
The video shown here is the opening sequence of the previously recorded version narrated by David Attenborough.
Merrie Monarch Festival History
The Merrie Monarch Festival is dedicated to the memory of King David Kalakaua, who became known as the Merrie Monarch. King Kalakaua was the second (and last) elected king of Hawaiʻi, who came to the throne in 1874 and reigned until his death in 1891. His long reign of seventeen years was marked by a joyful resurgence in Hawaiian culture. He was instrumental in restoring many of the nearly extinct cultural traditions of the Hawaiian people including myths, legends, and hula, which had been forbidden by the missionaries for over 70 years.
Ancient Hawaiians had no written language. Instead, all communication beyond the spoken word took place in the form of chants and the dance of hula. Hula and its accompanying chants recorded Hawaiian genealogy, mythology, and prayers of the heart. Hula was the means by which the culture, history, stories, and almost every aspect of Hawaiian life was expressed and passed down through generations.
More than 100 years later, Hawaii, and the world – celebrates the memory of the ‘Merrie Monarch’ at the hula competition that bears his name. In 1963, the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce started what is today known as the Merrie Monarch Festival. The private nonprofit Merrie Monarch Festival community organization continues the tradition to this day, and is considered the most prestigious hula competition in the world. Because the Merrie Monarch Festival has maintained strict standards of authenticity, the true history and culture of the ancient Hawaiian people is being perpetuated. Without such educational and cultural organizations, the history and unique traditions of the Hawaiian people will be lost forever.
Kauai History and Kapa Scents
Scenting was another unique characteristic of kapa produced by the Hawaiians. This was accomplished by either adding perfume during the dying process or perfuming the finished product. Fragrant elements from a variety of plant species were used for this purpose including ‘olapa bark, the underground rhizomes of ‘awapuhi kuahiwi, niu flowers, the fragrant laua‘e fern, kupaoa leaves, the inflorescences of hala, the seed capsules and stems of mokihana, leaves of the maile vine, the powdered wood of ‘iliahi, and the orange-blossom scented flowers of kamani. Some of the plant materials were often used to scent the storage items that held the kapa.
Kapa was traditionally perfumed by plant material. Sometimes the fragrance was extracted from the plant and mixed with the dye, other times, the kapa was stored with fragrant plant parts. A beloved kapa moe or sleeping kapa could be rolled up for the day with sandlewood chips and maile leaves scattered inside. When the blanket was opened for the night and the chips shaken out, it would have a wonderful scent.
Scents for ancient Hawai‘i kapa:
‘Awapuhi (Underground Rhizomes)
Hala (Male Flower)
‘Iliahi (Powdered Wood)
Kamani (Flowers)
Maile (Leaves)
Mokihana (Seed Capsules and Stems)
Hawaiian Shells and Adornment
Shells have played a central role in religion from prehistoric times onward. Dominating early religious practices, cowrie shells had powerful female symbolism and was renewed in the religions of the great civilizations that followed. Various American Indian tribes believed possessing certain shells gave them spiritual power. Archaeologists uncovered a chief buried on a blanket made of 200,000 shell beads. Long before our modern day communication systems, man found that trumpets made from shells produced a sound that carried for many miles. By using as series of trumpet blasts, messengers were able to communicate fairly detailed messages from village to village, tribe to tribe.
All cultures have used shells and pearls for personal adornment. Cowries were worn by Cro-Magnon man, as indicated by cowrie ornaments found in their caves. Some cultures wore shells to signal their distinct tribal identities and display their role and rank within the tribe. In some parts of India, a Hindu woman’s equivalent of a wedding ring is a bracelet made of the sections of the Indian chank. Other ways shells have been used as adornment are as jewelry, pendants, earrings, finger rings, nose rings, bracelets, and buttons. Abalone shells, especially the famous Paua shell from New Zealand, were extremely popular for buttons. The freshwater mussels along the Mississippi River were used extensively to make ‘pearl buttons’ for many years. In the year 1912 there were 196 pearl button factories in 20 states along the Mississippi River system. As decoration or as intrinsic parts of their function mother of pearl was commonly used on ceremonial or religious garbs. As clothing adornment, pearls are frequently sewn on as jewelry, fresh and saltwater pearls are used in many ways as inserts in ceremonial masks.
Coral Reefs
Coral is an animal with a hole in one end surrounded by feeding tentacles. Young coral look like tiny jellyfish and float around in the water until they find a hard place to attach to. When they land, they start to build themselves a shell by combining carbon dioxide and calcium in the water to make calcium carbonate (limestone). These coral polyps are primarily nocturnal, sticking out their tentacles at night and letting them wave in the current. When plankton float by, the coral polyp stings them with its tentacles and brings the plankton inside its shell. A thin layer of skin connects each polyp to its neighbors and allows the whole colony to benefit from nutrients obtained by individual polyps. During daylight hours the tentacles are retracted into the safety of the protective skeleton.
A coral reef is made up of millions of these individual coral polyp shells all stuck one on top of the other. When coral polyps die, new ones land and grow right on top of the old empty shells growing the reef from one half inch to 4 inches per year. There are over 500 different species of coral. Some look like brains and some like fans and some like the antlers of deer, but they are all made up of tiny coral polyps. Coral reefs are uniquely beautiful and colorful types of shallow ocean environments filled with many kinds of colorful fishes, corals, and other fascinating life forms.
An advantageous aspect of coral is that it has in its tissues microscopic algae called zooxanthellae. The coral and the zooxanthellae have a symbiotic relationship, helping each other survive. The zooxanthellae use photosynthesis to convert sunlight to energy, making the oxygen and food the polyps need. In turn, the coral produces the carbon dioxide, nitrates, and phosphates the algae needs to survive. Reefs grow best in sunny, shallow, clear water so they can get lots of sunlight. They prefer salt water, and do poorly in areas where there is a lot of fresh water river runoff, or silt covering the reef, or muddy water blocking the sunlight.
Coral reefs are important for many reasons. They provide protection and shelter for many different species of fish. They are important in controlling how much carbon dioxide is in the ocean water. And they are important because they protect coasts from strong currents and waves by slowing down the water before it gets to the shore.
