May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii

Hawaii Pono’i, nana i kou mo’i, ka lani alii, ke alii
Makua lani e, Kamehameha e, na kaua e pale, me ka ihe

Aloha kakahiaka

May 1st in Hawaii Nei is first and foremost considered Lei Day, and while I do love playing at being all sorts of things in SL — a faun, a siren, a medieval maiden — there are times when I love being able to make my avatar feel like home, so I’m always tickled when I come across items in SL that remind me of my beloved island home. ^_^

Here are a few of my favorite items I’ve found; more info on the items below will appear after the cut (if the cut even works at all on the feeds lol):

Plumeria flowers are super common in Hawaii, so I was really pleased to find these well-made plumeria hair ornaments and this lei. The blossoms for your hair actually come in three colors, and go on either side of your head to indicate whether you’re single or spoken for, cute touch imo!

I’m infatuated with this hair, partly because it reminds me so much of the way the dancers from the hula halau will arrange their hair when about to perform in events like the Merrie Monarch Festival.

This orchid lei actually comes in two colors; I chose the white one but you can also get a pink version.

I had wanted to rez a copy of this lei in order to unlink it and create a matching hair ornament, but it’s no modify. I think I may suggest creating a matching blossom for tucking behind the ear, to the person who made it. ^_^

The kukui nut lei is often used for dressing up for formal events. I was thrilled to find this! The place where I found it also sells an anklet version; because they’re copy/modify, I was able to mod one into a bracelet. <3 I might try rezzing a copy of one of the anklets later so that I can unlink the prims and mod a couple into a pair of matching earrings.

This is not something I’d wear around my neck in RL, lol, but it’d definitely work as a decorative hanging in my car on the rearview mirror (right now I’ve got a dried orchid lei hanging there). I thought it looked really cool, though, so I picked it up :p

When my friend Tea (who is also from Hawaii) and I saw this hairstyle, it immediately reminded us both of home! The local girls often put their hair up in a style similar to this, myself included. After pairing this hairstyle with shorts and “rubbah slippahs” (flip-flops to all you mainland folk), I can almost smell the ocean, hear the chatter of people on the beach and the occasional braddah playing his uke and singing, and taste the spam musubi.

The ubiquitous maile lei, common at weddings and graduation ceremonies and hula festivals all throughout the 808 State, is actually nowhere to be found in SL. The closest thing to it I’ve found are these ti leaf leis which mimic the look of the maile. These are at the same place where I found the orchid leis.

If you feel like listening to a bit of Hawaiian music, here’s a favorite stream of mine that’s on my parcel’s music stream changer, you’ll hear the likes of Israel Kamakawiwoole, Kealii Reichel, and Hapa:

Mountain Apple Company

When my friend Gogo found out about Lei Day, she decided to set aside a spot on Juicy just for celebrating this ^_^

Okay, and now for those details about what is being worn in the pics above…