KAILUA-KONA — Diana Delgado and Alex Perez were quick to show off the new bracelets on their arms to each other, seconds after completing them in a lauhala weaving class.
“I like this station the best, because you can make stuff at it,” Perez said with a smile on his face.
Lauhala weaving was just one of many Hawaiian cultural practices the two Kahakai Elementary School fourth graders learned about Thursday. The two students were among more than 300 of their peers at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park for the annual Children’s Hawaiian Cultural Festival.
Students from Kahakai Elementary School, Kealakehe Elementary School, and Kanu o ka Aina Public Charter School gathered at different stations set up along the beach to learn lauhala weaving, pole-and-line fishing, throw net fishing, Hawaiian language words, hula, how to thatch a roof, canoe paddling and rock wall building.
“It allows kids to understand the culture of Hawaii, and if they’re not from here, they can understand the process of everything,” said park ranger Jon Jokiel, who is the head organizer of the annual event. “This is a special place, a national park, to do this, and this is their place and this is their beach. A lot of kids know this beach, so it’s familiar to them.”
Information stations were also set up so students could learn about monk seals, honu and honuea, native Hawaiian plants and native Hawaiian birds.
“I like the bird station and learning about them,” Delgado said. “I like so many birds here.”
This morning, the festival continues with students from four more schools from around the island learning about Hawaiian culture.
Jokiel said the park has to turn away schools every year because of how popular the festival is.
“It’s perpetuating the culture, which is part of our mission as a national park. And it’s just a fun, wonderful day with the kids,” Jokiel said. “It’s a lot of work to prepare for it, but they seem to have a very good time.”
Joy Hanato, a fourth-grade teacher at Kealakehe Elementary, said the hands-on nature of the annual cultural festival is an important part of her teaching curriculum.
“The kids can learn how to be stewards of the aina and it’s also part of the fourth-grade standards to learn about early Hawaiian society,” Hanato said. “We do this so we can learn all the cultural practices here, at least for a day.”
The cultural festival is based on the Makahiki season, a holiday from ancient Hawaiian society that covers four consecutive lunar months, usually from October through February. The holiday was in honor of the god Lono, and during those months, war and unnecessary work were forbidden.
Both days of the festival start with a ceremony and offerings to Lono.
“We harvested taro from our school, the school garden, and the kids got to replant the parts that could be replanted,” Hanato said. “I took the rest home and boiled them and brought them as offerings.”
Hanato’s students have been learning about the roles of Lono in the life of the ancient Hawaiians — peace, fertility, agriculture and rain.
“Lono brings the rain, which makes everything flourish. Makahiki is a period of renewing,” Hanato said. “I taught that to the kids, and hopefully they remember, because when we get back to school they have to write a paper on it.”