Merrie Monarch parade in Hilo, Hawaii.

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One of the largest and most colorful parades to attend in Hawaii is the annual Merrie Monarch Parade in Hilo, Hawaii. This beautiful parade caps a week-long celebration of hula events all around Hilo and celebrates hula as the basis of each participating entrant to the event. This year’s parade with over 170 participants was the largest number of groups active with the celebration.

Along with the usual bands, civic groups and clubs, the Merrie Monarch parade celebrates everything surrounding the week long hula fest.  There is usually a variety of pageant queens including our own Miss Aloha – hula contestant winner.

 

 

 

 

Then there is a contingent of this year’s Hawaiian royalty, kings, queens and other historical members of the Hawaiian royal family who are chosen to be this year’s royal court members.  The royal float contains live music performers serenading the court and is filled with fresh tropical flowers and exotic plants.

All the floats are lavishly decorated with colorful flowers like orchids, gingers and plumeria which are grown commercially for export and showcasing the abundance of plant and tropical flowers grown on the island.  Many of the floats feature live performers singing favorite Hawaiian tunes along with local dancing hula halaus (schools) dancing in perfect synch to the music.

A favorite of the audience are the local pa’u riders (parade horseback riders) with their extravagant outfits and vivid floral displays of leis and other adornments. Representing each island with their local official color and flower, each pa’u rider is an amazing sight to behold in the procession. Even the horse poop carriers and scoopers are creatively presented and fun to witness their vital task of pooper scooper tasks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even the paniolo men (cowboys) were handsomely presented with their horses in beautiful regalia to match the island colors and flowers.

At the tail end of each horse contingent are the pooper scoopers, this was actually one of the favorites at the parade, due to the unique and colorful presentations that were present at this parade. This one was my favorite with the pineapple princess representing Lanai.

Unique to the Hawaiian islands are contingents that celebrate local activities like the Red hat ladies, marching bands, the taiko drummers, the local ukulele marching band and various dignitaries. It all makes for a unique blend of participants that creates a fun parade experience.

 

The Merrie Monarch parade celebrates hula and the entire community at its best and most welcomed Aloha.  Its a beautiful event to witness and photograph with each new contingent approaching and exciting events unfolding spontaneously.


Thanks for visiting and experiencing this event online, hopefully next year you may come and visit Hilo to experience this exciting festival and parade in person.

To see more photographs on this event, please visit this flickr site for more images.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633210534314/

 

 

©Noel Morata, All rights reserved

Come and visit my photography website at http://noelmorata.photoshelter.com/
 

Merrie Monarch Hula Ho'olaule'a 2013

The whole week right after Easter day celebrations in Hilo, Hawaii is marked with the Merrie Monarch festival which covers everything and anything focused on the beautiful hula dance, competitions and various events celebrating the hula.

Every day is set with amazing hula performances at many venues around Hilo town and many hula halau (hula schools) coming from all over the world converge to enjoy, compete and perform in the festivities. You will see some of the best hula performances in the world at this week long celebration of hula.

The first day of peformances starts on Easter Sunday and is a called the Ho'olaule'a (Hawaiian celebration or event). The event features well known local hula halau (hula schools) from Hawaii Island and is a favorite event with local audiences. Usually the auditorium is packed with audience members supporting their favorite hula halau with loud cheers and whistles. The energy level and spirit of Aloha is alive with the hula dancing along with audience participation.

Many hula halau include young keiki (children) dancing in their age groups and hula performances are encouraged at all ages from young to old. But the keiki hula performances are very popular and fun to watch at the Ho'olaule'a show.

Traditional hula dancing known as hula kahiko is a very popular dance to see and experience. Not only are the costumes handmade, but also their adornments, leis and musical instruments are hand done for each specific performance. Every part of a dance and costume is presented with authentic details with time consuming practise and performance. This is to present a hula dance to the audience so they can experience an authenthic and ancient hula performance.

The modern dance style called hula Auana is also popular with colorful outfits and a beautiful and expressive flowing style. Most hulas dances are typically done in this modern style of dance with popular Hawaiian music performed with an ukulele, guitar and base guitar combination and singers complementing the dance.

Here are a few more performance highlights of last night's event.

The Merrie Monarch Ho'olaulea hula performances in Hilo are just the start of a week long celebration of hula dancing at its finest. The rest of the week comprises of beautiful hula demonstrations, crafts fairs, singing competitions, various competitive dance performances and a colorful parade with the champions of the hula events.



To view more images of this event, please visit my flickr site below

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12701042@N04/sets/72157633140716967/with/8610627747/



A hui hou (until we meet again) - hopefully at another beautiful hula performance at the Merrie Monarch festival in Hilo.




 

Pau Riders in Verticle

Photo Hunt Challenge - Verticle


The Pau Rider's come to the Merrie Monarch Festival to march in one of the most spectacular parades in Hawaii today.



They come festooned with beautiful and huge cascading leis for their horses and for each rider's, elaborate head and neck ornamentation.

The colors of the gowns and native flowers reference the local origins of their particular islands.

To visit other interpretations of the photohunt challenge - Verticle visit http://tnchick.com/

Pure Joy Unfolds - Merrie Monarch Festival

To visit other wordless wednesdays go visit  http://www.wordlesswednesday.com/

The Merri Monarch Festival, A Real Hula Fest

The week after Easter on the Big Island of Hawaii marks one of our largest festivals on the island called the Merrie Monarch Festival. This is named in honor of King David Kalakaua,  who brought back the traditional dance of hula to his people during the victorian age and christian missionaries, who shunned this public display of skin and "sexy dancing".  King David was a pure believer of Hula as a beautiful form and primary means of communication and enjoyment. It is a large part of his people's heritage and should be shared by his people in all its forms.

This annual celebration spans an entire week marked with the main hula competition, the Merrie Monarch Parade, art exhibits, dance demonstrations, crafts fairs and everything Hawaiian.  People from all over the islands, the mainland, and many international countries come to the Big Island, just to see this event and share in the aloha of its people.  Every event is filled with travellers and admirers of the hula. Visitors come to enjoy the dance,  comraderie and  feel the (mana) spirit of this magical craft.






The main event is the Merrie Monarch dancing competition of the hula halau's ( hula dancing troups) coming from Hawaii and around the world that have been doing this competition since its inception.  It is an amazing venue to be in, with everyone tightly packed in shoulder to shoulder, intense lights and a loud boisterous crowd.  Music is typically played with amazing live bands, live chanting, celebrity performances and even group participation in many of the chants and lively sing-a-longs.

The entire audience is deadly silent at the start of each performance and captivated by the swaying, and hypnotic dances unfolding and in the end the entire auditorium stands at their feet, shouting cheers at the top of their lungs with teary eyed adjulation for each and every performance.

I'll be writing about some of these special moments and amazing events that happen during the week in upcoming posts. It truly will give you a better idea about why living here in the Big Island of Hawaii is special, including her people.


To view other worlds for Thats my World Tuesday, go visit http://showyourworld.blogspot.com/