Pride high at parade for king
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Half the size. Twice the enthusiasm.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
That's how the 88th Annual King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade was summed up yesterday morning.
The 88th Annual King Kamehameha Celebration Floral Parade began yesterday in downtown Honolulu, near the statue of the king, and wound its way to Ala Moana Boulevard, ending at Kapi'olani Park. The number of floats and horse-mounted pa'u riders declined for this year's event because of financial constraints, but thousands still turned out to cheer the 45-unit parade.
"No matter how small or big, people still come out because they believe in it," said B.J. Allen, arts and programs specialist for the celebration commission.
Allen said financial constraints have been a main cause for the decline in the number of floats, bands and, especially, colorful horse-mounted pa'u riders. This year only four islands were represented by pa'u units instead of the traditional eight seen in years past, according to organizers.
But the thousands of folks who showed up to cheer the 45-unit parade seemed big and loud as ever. The parade began in downtown Honolulu, near the statue of King Kamehameha, and wound its way along Ala Moana and Kalakaua Avenue, ending at Kapi'olani Park.
All along the 4-mile parade route shady spots were quickly occupied by swarms of spectators. Those left out in the sunshine seemed content to be fanned by breezy trade winds.
For many, all the hoopla was a new cultural experience.
"Looks like a king," tourist Rod Haslette, 20, of Dyersburg, Tenn., said as the King Kamehameha float passed him and his family on Kalakaua Avenue. "Who was he?"
For most of those who watched the parade, though, the focus of the celebration was a familiar figure.
"The people of Hawai'i honor him," said Pomaikai Kaniaupio-Crozier, 32, who has attended Kamehameha parades all his life. "He really impacted and changed the face of Hawai'i. You have a lot of parades, but there is no other parade in the nation that celebrates a king."
"Most of us feel like he was an icon in the history of Hawai'i," added Aunty Nickie Hines, parade chairwoman. "The theme this year is Na Mo'olelo O Kamehameha I, which is the Legends of Kamehameha The Great. I don't think there is ever going to be another person like him — the one who united the islands together under one rule."
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Sam Kaleleiki Jr., who rode on the Reinstated Hawaiian Nation float dressed in the traditional ancient Hawaiian garb, said his desire is to see the Hawaiian people united once more.
The Camdenton High School Marching Band entertains the crowd as they march past Kawaiaha'o Church. The 151 students from Missouri spent three years raising money to make the trip to Honolulu. Parade spectators shouted words of encouragement as the band made its way to Waikiki.
"I belong to the reinstated local Hawaiian government, Kingdom of Hawai'i," he said as he fanned a roasted pig with a leafy branch, as an impressive man-made mountain waterfall splashed behind him. The pig, he said, would be eaten at a lu'au at Kapi'olani Park following the parade.
For the 151 student members of the Camdenton High School Marching Band, the thrill of being part of the Kamehameha Parade had been a long time coming.
Paul Baur, director of bands for the school, said students spent three years raising the money to travel the 3,998 miles from Camdenton, Mo., to Honolulu.
"The people along the parade were absolutely fabulous," he said. "When we got to Waikiki, the crowd went wild. They yelled, 'You're almost there! You've got less than a mile to go!' The students were exhilarated."
Exhilarated was not the word to describe what may have been the most unusual unit in the parade — the Kawagoshi-Han Teppotai formation, a group of about a dozen samurai warriors from Japan. Each one wore an authentic feudal uniform (helmet, breast plate, sword, leg guards) weighing dozens of extra pounds, said Lee Nohara of Honolulu, who was part of the group.
By the parade's end, the warriors appeared more than ready to get out of the hot sun and take a break beneath the trees at Kapi'olani Park. But samurai are nothing if not rugged.
"On Sunday (today)," Nohara said, "we do it again in the Pan-Pacific Parade."
Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8038.
