Kauai History and Luau Celebration

Today’s luaus are still a celebration of life. A time to share traditional foods, enjoy songs and dances of early Hawaii, and to give thanks to family and friends. Commercial luaus are performed at many venues around the island with Hawaiian music of the ukelele, fire dancers, and Hawaiian hula dancers moving with the style and grace of the ancients to the sound of drums and chants. And of course, there is plenty of food. These luaus generally begin at dusk beneath the stars and swaying palms, and include flower or shell lei greetings, mai tais, traditional poi dishes, Kalua Pork, and they also provide eating utensils for the poi.

When Captain Cook arrived in Hawaii in 1779, the Hawaiian people had been dancing hula for centuries. Hula was danced more by men than women as part of their religion. The men and women did not wear grass skirts, the women wore skirts made of kapa cloth, or the men wore a malo (loincloth). Later, when the missionaries arrived in the 1830’s, they were shocked by the open dancing, and it was outlawed. King David Kalakaua is credited with the rebirth of this traditional art form when, in the 1870’s, he encouraged hula practitioners to resume the custom. In this favorable era, hula practitioners merged Hawaiian elements of poetry, chanting, dance movements, and costumes to create a new form, the hula ku’i (ku’i means ‘to combine old and new’). The Hawaiians have been dancing hula ever since.

In the end, luau means feast, and celebration, and nourishment, and life, and music, and dance, and love. It is the true experience of ‘aloha’.