|
Hawaii’s Back yard Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi |
LANAI PINEAPPLE FESTIVAL
Have you ever seen a pineapple dance? You will at the Lanai Pineapple Festival celebrating the sweet fruit.
Pineapple fest on
Lanai is coming upWho would've thought there would be riches in the scruffy, arid basin of Palawai on Lanai? Boston-born, Harvard-educated James Dole saw the potential there, and in 1922 he purchased the 140-square-mile island from the Baldwins, a kamaaina missionary family, for $1.1 million. The visionary entrepreneur constructed a harbor and housing for workers, tilled the land and within a few years was overseeing a vast plantation of emerald-and-gold pineapple.
For 70 years, pineapple was king on Lanai. At the peak of production, Dole Co. grew 15,000 to 18,000 acres of the tart, juicy fruit, making it the largest single pineapple plantation in the world. The name Dole became synonymous with pineapple, and for a long time Lanai was known as Hawaii's "Pineapple Island."
Lanai Pineapple Festival
Place: Dole Park in Lanai City
When: 4 to 10 p.m. Saturday
Call: 800-947-4774
Web site: www.visitlanai.net
In subsequent years, however, pineapple production in areas such as Southeast Asia and South America increased. Able to operate with cheaper labor, equipment and other costs, foreign companies presented serious competition for Dole, which finally closed its Lanai plantation in 1992. Today, only a few plots of pineapple remain, primarily for use by the island's two luxury resorts, the Lodge at Koele and the Manele Bay Hotel, which opened in 1990 and 1991, respectively, to cultivate tourism instead.
But each year on the Saturday closest to the Fourth of July, Lanai remembers its roots by staging a pineapple festival featuring crafts, games, live music, historic photos, pineapple-eating and dessert contests, a fireworks show and great food, including fried ice cream -- vanilla ice cream coated with batter, deep fried, then topped with chocolate or strawberry syrup, nuts and whipped cream.
Two years ago the Pineapple Festival expanded its focus to include the island's paniolo (cowboy) history. "The documented history of Lanai Ranch began in 1861 and officially ended in 1951," notes Waynette Ho-Kwon, the executive director of Destination Lanai, a chapter of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau. "What most people don't know is that pineapple and ranching reached their peak on Lanai during roughly the same period. Pineapple dominated the western side of the island, and cattle dominated the eastern half."
Festival attendees also will get a taste of Hawaiian culture at the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' demonstration of lua, an ancient fighting art. The authoritative Hawaiian Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert defines lua as "a type of dangerous hand-to-hand fighting in which the fighters broke bones, dislocated bones at the joints and inflicted serious pain by pressing on nerve centers. ... Many of the techniques were secret. Lua experts were bodyguards to the chiefs."
LANAI PINEAPPLE FESTIVAL
Kids vie for prizes in a pineapple eating contest, among the activities taking place Saturday on Lanai.
Contrary to what some believe, however, lua warriors were not thugs. In addition to their prowess on the battlefield, they also were master healers, poets, dancers and athletes who excelled in a range of sports and games, including surfing.
Ho-Kwon organizes the Pineapple Festival, now in its 11th year, with the help of some 30 volunteers. "It's a time when everyone on Lanai can come together outside of work and relax, share, laugh and enjoy," she says. "During the pineapple/paniolo era, the community had the same schedule: up at dawn, work, break for lunch, continue work and end the day at dusk. Because of that, they could count on sharing time together when they were not working."
Today, most Lanai residents work at the resorts, which operate 'round the clock. Because their shifts are different, Ho-Kwon says, recreation time is scattered. Running for several hours, the Pineapple Festival allows residents to join the celebration when it's most convenient for them and their families.
"It's also a chance for visitors to witness firsthand what the aloha spirit is all about," she added. "The festival is a really down-home event."
And that means "no worries" is the order of the day. Ho-Kwon recalls a few times when the entertainment at the Pineapple Festival was disrupted by temperamental sound equipment. There was no music for more than an hour while sound technicians frantically tried to correct the problem.
"But no one went home," she says. "Everyone waited patiently, talking story, laughing and eating until the sound was finally restored. We had no complaints -- that's Lanai style, which means to take things as they come and enjoy them to the fullest."
Pineapple pieces
>> Although pineapple has become a symbol of Hawaii, it is actually a native of Brazil.>> Pineapple ranks as the state's third-largest industry, behind tourism and the military.
>> Historians believe a wayward Spanish galleon sailing from Manila to Acapulco introduced pineapple to Hawaii long before Cook arrived in 1778.
>> Don Francisco de Paula Marin, Kamehameha I's physician, accountant, business adviser and amateur horticulturist, made the first recorded planting of pineapple in Hawaii on Jan. 21, 1813.
>> A member of the bromeliad family, pineapple grows from its crown, or green spiked top.
>> Pineapple is as sweet as it will get at the time it's harvested.
Schedule of events
Noon to 10 p.m.: Keiki rides and games3:30 to 7:45 p.m.: Round-robin tennis tournament at the Manele Bay Hotel tennis courts
4 p.m.: Official opening prayer, pineapple-cutting demonstration and tasting, and pineapple-eating contest for children
4:25 to 4:40 p.m.: Lua martial arts demonstration
4:45 to 6:15 p.m.: Entertainment by Makewai
5 to 5:30 p.m.: Pineapple dessert contest and judging
6:30 to 8 p.m.: Entertainment by Full Staq
8:15 to 9:45 p.m.: Entertainment by Na Hoku Hanohano award winner Sean Na'auao
9:55 to 10 p.m.: Fireworks show
The lure of Lanai
Hawaii residents can escape to Lanai with a Kamaaina Appreciation Package that's good through July 15. It includes accommodations at the Lodge at Koele or Manele Bay Hotel starting at $199 per night, double occupancy; golf at the Experience at Koele or the Challenge at Manele courses for $95 per round; a 25 percent discount on the Mahana Horseback Trail Ride; and 15 percent off introductory lessons at Lanai Pine Sporting Clays. For more information and to make reservations, go to www.islandoflanai.com or call 800-321-4666.Show proof of Hawaii residency, and Trilogy Ocean Sports will slash 50 percent off all its tours leaving from Manele Bay. Call 800-874-2666. Dollar Rent-a-Car gives locals a 25 percent discount on any rental vehicle. Book direct at 800-533-7808.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based free-lance writer
and Society of American Travel Writers award winner.
