This falls under the “late, but I still wanted to share with you" category…King Kamehameha Day is celebrated annually in early June. It’s a state holiday, and there is a midweek, early morning ceremony to drape his downtown statue downtown in 13 foot lei. I’ve wanted to shoot the event each year since we arrived (it’s a popular postcard shot), but never made it. This year I managed to get there on Sunday afternoon to shoot the statue, which I thought was progress! Good thing we made it when we did, as chance would have it, Noel’s bar swearing in ceremony was in the building behind the statue the following Tuesday, and they had removed all the lei. I thought they might let it be a little longer. One day I will make it to the day-of ceremony, for now I will enjoy these pictures.
Here’s some bonus trivia: There are only three statues of King Kamehameha in the world – Honolulu, the Big Island, and in DC in the Capital building. There would only be two, but when the original Honolulu-bound statue was commissioned and completed, it was lost in a shipwreck. A replacement statue later went up in Honolulu. The original statue was eventually salvaged from the ocean floor and brought to the Big Island. I think all three statues are annually adorned with lei on King Kamehameha Day.
2 comments:
I've seen the one in the Capital Building...unadorned.
The one in the Capitol Building is fabulous and one of the new statues of color! (it ain't one more statue of a white dude)
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