Descendants of Portuguese immigrants will take to the streets of Kakaako tomorrow morning in a parade that affirms their history, ethnic pride and religious devotion. Pentecost shows
Portuguese prideThe celebration by the Kewalo
Holy Ghost Society includes a
parade and festival after
morning MassBy Mary Adamski
madamski@starbulletin.comThe Kewalo Holy Ghost Society, led now by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the founders, will carry banners and statues of Jesus and a pantheon of saints in the procession along Queen and Cooke streets, Kapiolani Boulevard and Ward Avenue.
The uniquely Portuguese observance of Pentecost -- marked earlier this month in Catholic and Protestant churches -- is similar to events held by other Holy Ghost organizations around the islands and by Portuguese around the world.
The march will begin after a 9:30 a.m. Mass in the Queen Street social hall that has been a center of spiritual and community activities for more than 90 years. Planners expect dozens of people to return for the reunion, which will also include a feast and a bazaar.
"All the statues go out only once a year," said festival Chairwoman Rose Correa-Birch, showing a bank of 30 images of saints in the small concrete block chapel, which was built after World War II to replace a wooden structure built by the immigrant generation.
Masses were occasionally said in the chapel, which is not a Catholic church. It is surrounded now by auto repair shops, but members still use the building for private devotions.
"Some of these statues were brought by our grandparents," said Joe Perreira, 72, a Waianae farmer whose grandfather was one of the founders. "This is still a family thing for all of us." He and his wife will bring their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the celebration.
Correa-Birch said the members, as Catholics, worship only God but pray to the saints depicted by the statues, asking them to intercede with God on the petitioner's behalf. On any given day, there may be from two to a dozen colored ribbons tied to a particular permasa flagpole, indicating that a petitioner has made a promise to fulfill some devotional or charitable obligation.
That kind of bargaining with God is at the historical root of the Holy Ghost celebration. The late Father Louis Boeynams, in "Pioneers of the Faith," an account of the beginnings of the Catholic Church in Hawaii, wrote about the practice brought by the Portuguese. In the 14th century, Queen Elizabeth of Portugal vowed to give her jeweled crown to the Church of the Holy Ghost in Lisbon if God would end the drought that led to thousands of deaths from famine and disease. Her prayers were answered, and she not only donated the crown, but hosted a feast for the poor every year of her reign.
A replica of the crown, also brought from Portugal, sits among the statues. It will be carried by the queen of the procession, 22-year-old Chanda Markham.The Kewalo tradition is to have families bid in a kind of lottery for the honor of carrying each statue. The saints go marching out according to an established protocol. "Baby Jesus is the first dominga; the Blessed Mother is the second dominga; Joseph is the third dominga; the fourth dominga is the family's choice of a saint," and so forth, Correa-Birch said, up to seven.
The tradition of seven dominga, which means "Sunday," is observed elsewhere as a seven-week series of prayers before Pentecost, which in the Bible is the day the Holy Spirit descended upon the Apostles in the form of tongues of fire.
Besides the religious event, what engrossed officers and volunteers earlier this week was preparation for the festival -- with the accent on food -- that will follow.Mary Medeiros began marinating the beef for hundreds of servings of vinha d'alhos after the meat was blessed last night by a priest from Sts. Peter and Paul Church. A task she has done for 33 years, she resumed the job this year after a 10-year hiatus, with daughter Francine as understudy.
Margie Perreira of Waianae has been making guava jam and pickled onions for weeks, one of many contributors to the bazaar of food items, stitchery and crafts.
Her family will run a concession with "Pocho Dogs" and other food, donating everything as their "permasa."
"I give from the bottom of my heart, and I get back double," Joe Perreira said.
The days of homemade Portuguese bread are part of the past, but the current source is close, Agnes Portuguese Bakery of Kailua.
Society President Ernest Silva, 83, wasn't successful in soliciting musicians for this weekend, but "there's a lot of talent from Kakaako. I hope they'll come and bring their ukuleles."
Click for online
calendars and events.
