Colors of Lanai - traditions, festivals, mentality and lifestyle

Worlwide famous Hawaiian «Aloha» has a huge number of meanings depending on the context - Hello/goodbye/make friends/love and many other pleasant feelings. In general, the language of the locals is quite interesting. For example, they like to use reduplication to create new words such as huli-huli dish. Moreover, all of the borrowed words are changed in their own way. For example, the name of the biggest volcano in the world is Mauna Loa is «Mountain Long» in English.

The volcano, by the way, is very important and peculiar natural object here. You should know that you can suddenly become allergic to vog gas emitted by the constantly erupting Mauna Loa volcano. The locals feel comfortable with it. You are likely to be called haole here, like all white tourists. It means «white traveller». Only a few people here think about geographical coordinates. For example, the sun goes "over the mountain" or "over the sea".

While packing your luggage remember that it is prohibited to bring food, animals, and especially snakes to Hawaii. You can even get a prison sentence of 5 years if you’ve decided to bring a snake here. There is almost no change of seasons on the island. There are only three winter months on Lanai which differ with the rain intensity. There is no cold weather and no monsoons. Copyright www.orangesmile.com

Perhaps the reasons listed above explain why time plays no role for local inhabitants. However, it may be connected with religious motives. Whatever the reason is, remember that there is almost no difference between today and tomorrow or this week and the next week. That is why locals always come late and forget about different things. If you’ve agreed with a local that he will take you somewhere on a certain day, you can not find him at the appointed time at the meeting place. But he can offer to take you to that place on the next week like nothing has happened.

If you want to increase the favour of the locals and feel at home here, you should give up the usual costumes and wear national clothes. Local men really love colourful shirts, but women wear muumuu- bright and sometimes quite shapeless dresses. However, there are also quite elegant and tight-fitting muumuus. For more immersion in the local culture, you can learn to dance the hula. The dance has existed here for more than a thousand years and it has many varieties. Some of them you can dance only during religious ceremonies, some can be danced only by royal people and the others are allowed to everyone. This local dance is taught in many schools throughout the island. So, even tourists without sports training can take classes.

If you come to the island during holidays, you will feel and understand the culture of local inhabitants. In general, locals love festivals and holidays. They celebrate the majority of the important dates of different Nations. The islanders celebrate traditional American Thanksgiving, Columbus Day, Independence Day, Christian Easter, Christmas, New Year's Day, and even Japanese Girls’ Day and Boys' Day. Of course, they don’t forget about local holidays. For example, there are large celebrations on the date of birth of Kamehameha I, who united the archipelago. The celebrations include large-scale festivities, carnival and canoe races, as well as during the day of Kuhio Prince. Locals also celebrate the Day of entry of Hawaii into the United States and the Chinese New Year. Streets of Lanai are full of people in traditional costumes during festivals. Locals have canoe races at daytime, make fires and dance hulu at night. Lanai Pineapple Festival attracts many people every year.