An Island Tradition: 'May Day is Lei Day'

In Hawaiʻi, “May Day is Lei Day” isn’t just a phrase—it’s a beloved tradition. And as lei-making evolves with fresh flowers, materials, and innovative new styles and combinations, the meaning stays beautifully the same. Whether you’re celebrating by gifting lei, supporting local lei sellers, or learning to make your own, Lei Day is a heartfelt way to share aloha and honor the people and places we love.

Most of us know the song “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaiʻi,” and that it’s customary to give and wear beautiful lei on May 1. Some people celebrate by gathering sweet-smelling plumeria from their yard to string a simple lei—or, for something fancier, perhaps intoxicating cream-white to deep orange puakenikeni. Others buy their lei fresh from a lei stand in Chinatown or their local grocery store, opting for delicate pikake, tuberose, pakalana, or yellow ginger. However you choose to celebrate, whether simple or elaborate, handmade or purchased, the result is the same: sharing a lei-giving and lei-wearing tradition are just one of the many things that make our islands so special.

But how did May 1 become associated with lei? And did you know that Bank of Hawaiʻi hosted one of the first Lei Day celebrations in our lobby?

May Day became closely tied to Lei Day in Hawaiʻi in 1928, when artist and poet Don Blanding (an Oklahoma native living in Hawaiʻi who wrote for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin) suggested creating a holiday to celebrate the tradition of making, giving, and wearing lei. He shared the idea with Star-Bulletin society editor Grace Tower Warren, who immediately embraced it. Warren proposed pairing the new holiday with May Day, already associated with flowers (and also her birthday), and she coined the now-familiar phrase: “May Day is Lei Day in Hawaiʻi.”

Around that time, musicians Leonard “Red” Hawk and Ruth Hawk wrote the now-familiar song:

“May Day is Lei Day in Hawaiʻi

Garlands of flowers ev'ry where

All of the colors in the rainbow

Maidens with blossoms in their hair”

One of the earliest organized Lei Day celebrations was held on May 1, 1928 and was promoted by the newspaper and held in the Bank of Hawaiʻi lobby in downtown Honolulu at King and Bishop Streets (see our timeline). Caught up in the spirit, some downtown business people wore lei, though not nearly as many as you’ll see today. The bank also provided prize money for a lei-making competition with several categories.

Five years earlier, in 1923, Hawaiʻi’s Territorial Legislature had officially declared a color and lei for each island. At the first Lei Day competition at Bank of Hawaiʻi, judges considered how well each lei incorporated the islands’ flowers and colors.

Princess Abigail Wahiʻikaʻahuʻula Campbell Kawānanakoa was one of the three judges, along with Elizabeth Lahilahi Webb (lady-in-waiting to Queen Liliʻuokalani) and Chiefess Lucy Kalanikiekie Davis.

The first-ever Lei Day Queen was 19-year-old Nina Bowman, a University of Hawaiʻi student, who was crowned by Honolulu's mayor of the time, Charles Arnold.

The lei’s history, tradition, and significance go back far beyond 20th-century Lei Day, of course. The first Hawaiians brought the practice with them from their Polynesian island homes. Then, as now, people made lei from the natural items around them—flowers, leaves, shells, feathers, seeds, and nuts—and today that creativity extends to materials like ribbon, fabric, and even glass. And people continue to give lei for the same cultural reasons practiced for generations: as symbols of friendship, celebration, honor, love, and greeting.

There has always been etiquette around giving lei. A lei placed around the neck is like a symbolic embrace, so it’s considered impolite to refuse one—or to remove it right away or in the view of the person who gifted it. One should also never throw a lei in the trash. A lovely option is to share a still-fresh lei with someone else, passing on the mana (spirit) of the person who made it, as well as the mana of the last person who wore it. Many people drape a lei over a tree when they’re done with it, so the petals can return to the earth.

Around the turn of the 19th century, Reverend Samuel Kapu of Maui wrote the mele Nā Lei o Hawaiʻi (the lei of Hawaiʻi) and dedicated it to the goddess Hiʻiakaikapoliopele. The mele recounts Hiʻiaka’s journey across Nā Kai ʻEwalu (the eight seas of Hawaiʻi) and describes the flowers, colors, chiefs, seascapes, and landscapes that symbolize each island.

Noted kumu Peleuli Amalu set the mele to music, and it was first sung at a church concert on Hawaiʻi Island in 1901. Amalu and her husband continued to perform the mele over the years, and in 1909, the Kaʻahumanu Society sang it at Honolulu's old Opera House, which stood next to ʻAliʻiōlani Hale. Young women dressed in the appropriate colors and lei representing the different islands, and acted out the song.

By 1912, the idea that specific colors and flowers represented the different islands had stuck. Yellow and ʻilima came to symbolize Oʻahu; red and lehua represent Hawaiʻi Island; mokihana and violet represent Kauaʻi; the rose and pink represent Maui; kaunaoa and orange represent Lānaʻi; green and the white kukui blossom represent Molokaʻi; pūpū shells and white represent Niʻihau; and, last but never least, hinahina and grey represent Kahoʻolawe.

And then in 1928, Lei Day was launched and developed into an annual event. In the early years, the May 1st festivity was often held at Honolulu's City Hall, where there was a pageant and lei exhibit. Pageant princesses represented each island, wearing lei of the appropriate color and flower, and one was crowned Lei Day Queen each year.

When the event outgrew City Hall, it moved to Kapiʻolani Park.

Hawaiʻi’s most celebrated Lei Day festivities continue annually at Kapiʻolani Park, rain or shine, on May 1. This all-day, family-friendly celebration features Hawaiian cultural protocol, island music and hula performances, hands-on lei-making workshops, and local artisans and merchants, alongside the world-renowned Lei Contest. Lei Day Court contestants aspiring to be Lei Day Queen also demonstrate their skill in lei-making, speaking ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language), and dancing hula.

2026 Lei Day theme (City & County of Honolulu): The 98th celebration theme is “Mai ka hoʻokuʻi i ka hālāwai” (“From zenith to horizon,” invoking spirits from everywhere), guided by voyaging proverbs from Mary Kawena Pukui’s ʻŌlelo Noʻeāu’s book of Hawaiian proverbs and poetical sayings. The featured Lei Day theme material is ʻuala (sweet potato).

The day also includes lei-making contests for adults and children. It’s a chance to learn from tradition, celebrate creativity, and admire designs that range from classic to contemporary.

Another longstanding and moving tradition is what happens to the lei after Lei Day. Every May 2, fresh flower lei from the Lei Contest are exhibited one last time at Kawaiahaʻo Church and at Mauna ʻAla, the Royal Mausoleum, where many of Hawaiʻi’s aliʻi (royalty) are buried. After closing ceremonies, the public is welcome to handle the lei and help drape them on the graves, crypts, and tombs.

It’s a touching way to honor Hawaiʻi’s history, her aliʻi, the tradition of lei, and to say aloha to another splendid celebration until May returns the next year with its bright array of flowers, fanfare, and treasured festivity.

The mention of any individuals or businesses is not an indication of affiliation or endorsement by Bank of Hawaii. The individuals and owners of any other trademarks, logos, brands or other designations of origin shown, named or mentioned herein did not sponsor, endorse or preview this article.