The Story of La Hoihoi Ea

I didn’t grow up knowing this story so don’t feel bad about yourself if this is the first time you’re hearing it too. I wanted to learn more about this event because La Hoihoi Ea was the first National Holiday of the Hawaiian Kingdom and a very significant one too.

While I studied about the history of this day I found lots of interesting connections between my experiences and the history. Here are a few of the interesting facts that I found:

• Thomas square in Honolulu was named after Admiral Thomas, the man who removed the illegal occupiers from the Kingdom of Hawaii.
• Beritania Street is named that because part of that land where the street now runs through was leased to Great Britain for use during that time. Beritania is the Hawaiian word for Britain.
• Land disputes in Hawaii were prevalent and causing problems a looooooooong time ago and continue till this day.
• The phrase that we hear a lot and see on Hawaii’s coat of arms, “Ua mau ke ea o ka aina i ka pono.” was coined by Kamehameha the third because of this event.

We celebrate this day now as Hawaiians because it is a part of our history and it is a day that honors justice and the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Click here to download a pdf copy of the book to use in your classrooms, homes, offices, businesses, tour busses, etc! I have included an English and Hawaiian version of the story. Please do not alter any part of the pdf or sell any part of it either. If you would like to share the pdf, please share the link of this blog post.

Mahalo nui!

Emily

List of resources and sites used to retell this story:

http://lahoihoiea.org/

http://www.alaulili.com/la-hoihoi-ea-hamakua.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paulet_affair
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_George_Paulet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Charlton

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Darton_Thomas

Mahalo nui to these sites are resources for sharing their knowledge with the world!