Latest news with #MerrieMonarch
Yahoo
28-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Welcoming Miss Aloha Hula 2025 Jaedyn Janae Puahaulani Pavao
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Jaedyn Janae Puahaulani Pavao shares her experience at Merrie Monarch and how she captured the coveted Miss Aloha Hula title. Lei season is approaching, hereʻs how to make your own Niece of Kumu Hula Leinā'ala Pavao Jardin of Hālau Ka Lei Mokihana o Leināʻala, Jaedyn pays homage to her community in Kalāheo, Kauaʻi. The Merrie Monarch festival is held annually in Hilo to honor King David Kalākaua, a monarch who championed the revival of Hawaiian arts, language, and dance. With that, Miss Aloha Hula is considered one of the most prestigious titles in Hawaiian culture because it honors the excellence, discipline, and cultural knowledge of a solo female hula has been preparing for this moment her entire life. This victory in 2025 marks a significant achievement in her hula journey, reflecting her commitment to preserving and perpetuating Hawaiian culture through dance. In 2010, she was named Miss Keiki Hula at the Queen Lili'uokalani Keiki Hula Competition, a testament to her early promise in the art form. Now as an adult, she is excited to represent her hālau, kupuna, community and culture with this prestigious honor even further. Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news To learn more about Jaedyn and her ohana's hālau visit About Us | HKLMOL and see their mission statement and follow along with their journey. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Merrie Monarch boost Hilo businesses like Ola Brew
HONOLULU (KHON2) – It is Merrie Monarch, and to top it all off, Aloha Friday. The celebration brings community members together from all parts of the world to enjoy and participate in hula, while also supporting local vendors. Small businesses such as Big Island-based brewing company Ola Brewing saw a nice boost in support as a result of the Merrie Monarch festivities. The People's Pope is gone. What will the flock become? 'For us, it's really, really special because I think it's bringing people together. It's bringing all these different islands that are coming over here to experience Merrie Monarch and the incredible cultural festival that we have here,' said Ola Brewing President and Co-Founder Naehalani Breeland. For Breeland, the festivities serve as an opportunity for her to provide product to people on other islands who usually don't get to try her drinks and connect with other local organizations. 'People on other islands, they can't get everything that we have in the taproom, so to be able to share that with everybody is amazing. And then, in that collaborative spirit, being able to have pop-ups of a lot of these different artists and this whole mākeke in the back with Hulalei Designs, with Aunty Puamana Crabbe, with one of our local non-profits here, ʻĀina University, that works with keiki to get them grounded and rooted in ʻāina,' Breeland the increase in visitors, Ola Brewing is also able to promote a new drink they launched. 'Last night, we launched a beer, the Lehulehu lager, with Sig Zane for their 40th anniversary,' Breeland said. 'That was really incredible and hopefully we'll see more of those collaborations in the future, but it is really, really cool just to see the community come together.' Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Ola Brewing sees about two times more sales during the week of Merrie Monarch than usual, Breeland said. The extra profit benefits the business, as it is community funded and employee owned. 'So, we have over 42,000 shareholders that have invested into our business and what that means for us is a more circulated economy. What also circulates our economy here and what we are a part of is increasing the ag economy here,' Breeland said. 'So, sourcing as many local ingredients as we possibly can to add to our beverages, all the fruits that you see in our hard juices, all the fruits and botanicals that you see in our hard seltzers, those are all from here that we are really proud to share with our farmers. Since we opened, we have sourced over $4,000,000 from local farmers here, probably about 120 farmers so we are really proud of that, and we want to do more of that.' Click here for more information on Ola Brew. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Merrie Monarch brings opportunities to support local
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Merrie Monarch is in the air in Hilo, but it's not just about hula. The other big component of Merrie Monarch is supporting local. When we think of craft fairs, we think of the official Merrie Monarch Craft Fair at the Civic Center, but craft fairs are spread across town, such as Manono St Marketplace. Merrie Monarch Festival named in honor of King Kalākaua KHON2's Kamaka Pili started with an ʻono breakfast at the Hawaiian Style Cafe and stumbled across Aunty Piʻilani Akana and her beautiful lei hula bracelets. Aunty Piʻilani had a dream 20 years ago when her grandma appeared and showed her how to create her signature pieces. 'I retired, took care of my mom, then she passed away and I thought, 'hey, I better do my kuleana and get back to my Tūtū and listen to her. And so, I did that,' she said. She started her craft right as COVID came to the islands. It wasn't until her friend introduced her to Manono Marketplace that she was able to continue carrying out her dream.'She invited me and this was my first time selling. And a lot of people thought it was unique when they passed here and bought it.' According to Akana, it took her seven years to get a chance at her craft. 'You think it's just a dream. It's something that happened to you and came back in your dream. But then I thought, 'No, I never seen it.' So she has a point there. I better go check it out. And I want to respect her too. If she came into my dream, let's check this out and sure enough.' More one-of-a-kind treasures can be found at the Merrie Monarch Festival and the Manono Marketplace. Check out more news from around Hawaii Click here for Piʻilani Akana. To contact Lovely Creations, email lovely_creations_art@ Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
RNZ News
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- RNZ News
Hawaiian culture celebrated in 62nd edition of festival
The festival named after one of Hawaii's former kings returns this week, celebrating Hawaiian arts and culture. Photo: Merrie Monarch Festival An annual festival dedicated to preserving traditional Hawaiian arts and culture has been underway on Hilo Island this week. The 62nd Merrie Monarch was started by the late King David Laamea Kalākaua, who advocated for bringing back Hawai'ian culture. Known as the Merrie Monarch, he was the last king and second-last monarch to reign in Hawai'i in the late 1800s. The week-long event includes performances, parades and the Miss Aloha Hula competition. Louisa Tipene-Opetaia, who is in attendence this week, told Pacific Waves it is hard to get tickets and often people end up watching the live stream. She said attending the festival in person is a sensory experience. "When you watch hula, you don't just watch with your eyes," she said. "You can feel the drum beat like going through you, and you can smell the flowers, and you listen to the chanters and you listen to the music. So it's a whole sensory kind of overload. "You don't get that watching the live stream, as good as it is." She said a ballot system is in place for tickets. The Edith Kanakaʻole Stadium hosts the festival every year, but only 5000 people can fit in the ground, and a lot of seats are taken by performers and their families. "So you have to apply for real old school. They do it all through the mail," she said. "You've got to send in an application form, and you've got to send in a money order. And you do that at the end of the year, so in December, and then a couple months later, you find out whether you got in or not. "If not, you get your money order back and you have to watch the live stream with the rest of the world." Tipene-Opetaia, who lived on the island for seven years, said previously, almost all of its traditions were banned, and King David Laamea Kalākaua was credited with the revival of the Hawai'ian culture and the Hawai'ian language. "That's why they've named this festival after him, because of what he did to bring back this dance that actually was outlawed by the colonizers who came in. "They tried to take these kinds of things away from us - practicing our traditional healing methods, dancing and singing our songs." The festival wraps up on Saturday.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Rapid ohia death continues to move mauka
HILO (KHON2) — Tuesday, April 22, was Earth Day; and it is also Native Hawaiian Plant Month. One of our most important and beloved native flora is the ʻohia that continues to be threatened by Rapid Ohia Death, a fungal pathogen that has killed more than one million ohia trees on Hawaii Island. Dengue has come to Hawaiʻi: 9 things to know to protect your ʻohana 'Well, we are seeing the disease sadly progress more up the mountains,' said University of Hawaii Extension Forester JB Friday. 'Initially, we saw a lot down in Lower Puna, in Hilo, and everybody's very conscious of it because you saw trees dying. But the disease sadly has moved up, and we're seeing it more in the high watershed in places like Laupahoehoe and Kāʻū.' Rep. Tokuda shares top priorities for 2025 Scientists and land managers have begun to use fences to keep invasive animals out of native forest areas so they are less likely to spread the fungi that cause ROD. Friday said that it can even make noticeable impacts on one side of the fence from the other in the same forest. How Hawaiʻi can see a heavenly 'smiley face' in the sky tomorrow 'Fencing is a tool that we have that we can really protect our native forests from ROD. The disease is infects trees when they get injured. The fungus doesn't get through the bark. It's not doesn't seem to be taken up by healthy roots or come through the leaves. What it does get into is whenever there's an injury in the tree. And what we find is that cattle in the forest who are marking trees or pigs in the forest who are tearing up roots are causing those injuries. And we see across the landscape, forests that are protected with fencing and the animals are excluded have a lot lower levels of disease,' Merrie Monarch 2025 is this week, and Hawaiian Culture features a strong connection to ohia and its lehua blossoms. Friday said that there are ways to help mitigate the spread if people are planning on using ohia. Merrie Monarch Festival named in honor of King Kalākaua 'If you do gather ohia for lei, take good biosanitation practices when you go into the forest. Clean your boots, shoes, clean your tools. If you cut in ohia, put some sort of wound sealer on it. One of the things I do wanna get across is that Hawaii Island, there's a moratorium on moving ohia off the island as per the Department of Agriculture. So if you do purchase a lei at Merrie Monarch or you come to Hawaii Island and someone gives you an ohia lei, give it to someone else before you leave because you're not allowed to take them off back the island.' If not, the plant bottle brush has similar flowers to Ohia and has proven to be a way to replace Ohia's presence in leimaking. One of the ways that people can help ohia is to grow it in and around their homes. Friday notes that the tree is commonly thought to only grow in higher elevations, but it grows from mauka to makai. 'On Oahu and Maui, mostly you only see ohia up in the mountains, but that's just because the forest was cleared everywhere else. In ancient times, ohia, of course, came all the way down to the ocean. And here on Hawaii Island, we do see ohia coming all the way down to the ocean. So people think it can't grow in town, and it can. So go ahead and keep on planting ohia. I wanna mention that this year is the year of the community forest as per DLNR. And part of the idea is to make our native plants part of our daily life in Hawaii, so plant ohia, plant other native plants.'Another great way to help our native forests is through volunteering your time. 'There are opportunities for volunteering in the forest on all the islands,' Friday said. 'An awful lot of our native forest restoration is done by volunteers. Even if it's an agency organizing it, still, the people on the ground a lot of time are volunteers.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
