EMALANI FESTIVAL

Eo e Emalani i Alaka‘i returns to Koke`e!
A Day of Music, Dance, and Living History!

Eo e Emalani i Alakaʻi – The Virtual Event 2020

Emalani Festival 2018

Dancing for Queen

Emalani

Emalani Festival

Halau Ha'a Hula 'O Kekau'ilani-Na Pua Hala O Kailua

In Commemoration of the Achievements of and Aloha for
Hawai‘i’s Queen Emma
Saturday, October 10, 2020

Eo e Emalani i Alakaʻi – The Virtual Event 2020
In response to the inability of holding the actual event due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, this is the alternative event for 2020 to be held on October 10, 2020.

Links:

The Vision: A Virtual Video Event that follows the regular program that has been held for 32 years now. A video program, not live, will be placed online with the link that goes live on October 10, the date the live event was to be held. It will be sharable and promoted so that a wide audience can learn about Queen Emma and the story we are commemorating in this event. The purpose is to Honor Queen Emma, her momentous journey to the Kilohana above Wainiha, and her life and accomplishments.

Lovely Lesah Gail Merrick will again preside over the event as Queen Emma with footage from the 2019 Queen’s entry into the meadow. A pdf program will be available to download.

Step back in time to 1871, as Queen Emma and her entourage arrives on horseback with over a dozen hula halau greeting her and paying homage to her life and accomplishments. The day is full of beauty, as the mountain forests echo with sounds of Hawaiian music and chants during this very special festival. It is not a competition but a very special sharing of love and aloha. The dowager Queen Emma, still despondent over the loss of her husband and only child, came to Kaua‘i to regain her health and spirit. She found it in her journey to Koke‘e with over 100 companions, eager for an adventure with their Queen. Along the way, she called for her court chanter to offer oli, great poems of appreciation for the magnificence of the region’s landscape and all within. Other chants praised the Queen’s courage to undertake the relatively uncommon trek in the January cold. The delays turned the trek into an overnight stay in the soggy Alaka‘i Swamp. It was the Queen who cheered up her companions with tales and song into the night. Even more her heart was lifted by the beautiful view at the end of the trail overlooking Wainiha, Hanalei and Kilauea – the breathtaking “Kilohana” her husband and brother-in-law had once told her about. This is what is celebrated this day.

Eo e Emalani I Alaka‘i is hosted by Hui o Laka and funded in part by Hawai‘i Tourism and many island business and individuals.

For more information: (808) 335-9975 or email info@kokee.org.
Follow Hui o Laka at www.facebook.com/KokeeMuseumNew.

Photographs from past events. More on our facebook page.




2019 MAJOR EVENT SPONSORS

Kauai Festivals County of Kauai Hawaii Tourism Authority


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