Kuhio Celebration and Easter Treat Event at UHMC

KEKOA ENOMOTO photo
Na Hoku Hanohano 2012 awardee ʻIoane Keanaʻaina (left) and Richard Dancil sing and play slack key at noon April 1 during the Kuhio Day Celebration on UHMC’s Great Lawn. Their Kanikapila ʻO Keokea musical group also includes Keokea homestead guitarists Alika Akana and Aaron Booth. Photo Courtesy

University of Hawaiʻi Maui College will host a Easter Sunday Kuhio Day Celebration on the Great Lawn on April 1, 2018.

Open free to the public, the event opens with 7 a.m. sunrise services, followed by 7:30 cultural protocol; then an 8:15 Easter egg hunt and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. festival.

The latter festivities offer daylong entertainment; food; crafts; Makahiki games; a farmers market; four jumping castles and an art contest for the keiki, and community-information booths, including Vote 2 Rise voter registration and Project Vision Hawaiʻi mobile clinic.

Live entertainment throughout the day will feature Nā Hōkū Hanohano Award 2012 winner ʻIoane Keanaʻaina who will perform from noon to 1 p.m. with Kanikapila ʻO Keokea that includes Upcountry musicians Alika Akana and Aaron Booth on guitar, and Richard Dancil on slack key. Na Kani O Kaʻa, composed of Royal Order of Kamehameha musicians, entertains from 4 to 5 p.m.

The Kuhio Day Celebration salutes Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaʻole (1871-1922), whose March 26 birthday is a state holiday. The 10-term Territorial Congressional delegate spearheaded passage of the 1920 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act establishing the Hawaiian homestead program. The Kauaʻi son reorganized the Royal Order of Kamehameha in 1903; started the Hawaiian Civic Club movement in 1918, and instituted the island-county governmental system.