Lei

What it is

A lei can be made of flowers, leaves, ferns, seeds, nuts, shells or feathers. The familiar tourist lei is a strand of plumeria or orchids. Hawaiian families give many other kinds. Lei of maile, a fragrant native vine, are worn open ended and are traditional for weddings and graduations. Pikake, the local name for Arabian jasmine, makes fine scented ropes. Each island has its own emblem lei. A lei for the head is called lei po'o. In Tahiti a crown of flowers and leaves is worn at festivals.

How it is made

Hawaiians name several methods. Kui means stringing flowers on a thread with a long needle, end to end or sideways. Haku means braiding flowers and ferns into a plait of leaves or fibre. Wili means winding material onto a backing with fibre, which is how most head lei are made. Hili is a plait of a single plant, such as fern or ti leaf, with nothing added. Flowers are picked in bud or just open, and a finished lei is kept cool and lightly misted.

Where it comes from

In old Hawaii lei were worn by chiefs and commoners, offered to gods and given to seal agreements. When steamships began bringing visitors to Honolulu in the late nineteenth century, lei sellers greeted them at the pier, and the garland became the symbol of the islands. Lei Day has been celebrated on the first of May since the late 1920s, with contests, music and hula. In Tahiti and the Cook Islands the scented white tiare, a native gardenia, is the flower most often worn.

How to take part

1. Buy a fresh lei from the lei stands near Honolulu airport or in Chinatown, not a plastic one.
2. Wear it draped over the shoulders so it hangs evenly at the front and the back.
3. On Lei Day, go to a lei contest and exhibition in a public park.
4. Try a simple kui lei: about fifty plumeria flowers on a doubled thread.

Good manners

• Always accept a lei that is offered, and do not take it off in front of the giver.
• A pregnant woman is traditionally given an open ended lei, not a closed loop.
• Do not throw a lei in the bin. Return it to the earth: hang it on a tree, bury it or scatter the flowers.

The flowers

LeiA garland or necklace of flowers, leaves, or shells given to honor or celebratePlumeriaFragrant tropical tree with waxy, five-petaled flowers in many coloursArabian jasmineA small white jasmine with a strong, sweet scent, treasured in Asia for garlands and ceremoniesTahitian gardeniaA fragrant white flower woven into Pacific island garlands and oilsMaileA fragrant Hawaiian vine used in lei and local traditionDendrobiumA vast genus of orchids found from the Himalayas to Australia and the Pacific

Also part of it, and being written: Agave amica, Cordyline fruticosa.

Sources and further reading

• Lei (garland) on Wikipedia