Merrie Monarch: Miss Aloha Hula

Tonight was the start of broadcast of the 2021 Merrie Monarch Festival which was 1st held in 1964. In 1971 the goal of the festival shifted to revitalize the Hawaiian people & culture; the best hula dancers were gathered to celebrate Hawaiian culture. This year the competition itself actually occurred on June 24th, 25th, & 26th, but was broadcast starting tonight and will end on Saturday night; the judges were sworn to secrecy so the winners were not known until the end of the broadcast. Tonight was the Miss Aloha Hula competition; selected dancers danced both hula kahiko (traditional) and hula ʻauana (modern). It was won by Rosemary Kaʻimilei Keamoai-Strickland. In 2nd place was Ashley Kilioulaninuiamamaohoʻopiʻiwahinekapualokeokalaniākea Lai. And 3rd place was Makaʻala Kahikinaokalālani Victoria Perry. 

To keep the 350 dancers, kumu, judges, & other staff safe, each group was isolated in a bubble for 5 days prior to traveling to the competition in Hilo. All were also tested twice; 2 people who tested positive were separated from their bubble & quarantined. There was no audience this year.

One of the awards is for the use of ʻOlelo Hawaiʻi in the performance; it was won by Makaʻala Kahikinaokalālani Victoria Perry. I really appreciated that about half the commentary between dances was in ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi! (There were subtitles for non-Hawaiian speakers.) I was able to pick out some words & simple phrases, which is much more than I would have been able to do last year. Even some of their interviews were in Hawaiian. But I still need to find someone to talk with in Hawaiian.

Along with the Merrie Monarch was the Popup Mākeke, a market place for Hawaiian goods. When the Merrie Monarch Festival was cancelled last year, just a few weeks before the festival was to be held, several organizations banded together to quickly create a place to help the small vendors, who made much of their money for the year at Merrie Monarch. I think I will be buying some things from them this year. 

I had a beet stems proothie again this morning; it was the last of the beet stems. Iwas going to harvest a bunch of lau ʻuala in the afternoon when the plants were in the shade, but I forgot. I will have to get up a little earlier tomorrow  pick some for my proothie.

I sort of organized The Roommates food table. I was able to get all the boxes out from under the table. I also consolidated some items so The Roommates would know how much they had.

This is the 'after' photo.

Still working on lower levels of cart & stack to left.

I got the Employer Identification Number (EIN) for Dad's estate today. I paid to have it processed in the normal manner, 2 or 3 days; I could have paid more to have it processed immediately. Work must be slow at whatever office they process these requests at; I got Dad's TIN about 5 minutes after I submitted my request! (I am not sure why they call it an "Employer" number when you are applying for a number for a dead person's estate.)

I saw a post on Craigslist about anthuriums! So I sent a text & made contact with the seller. I think it might be the same person I was dealing with last year; the photos are the same.

Keala was the only cat that was sleeping out in the open this morning.

The Aix weather app forecast a drizzly day until about noon then partly cloudy in the afternoon in Honolulu; there was no drizzle, just partly cloudy. For Kapaʻau it forecast rain all day; it was hard to say if that was what was happening since the closest web cams are still quite far away and none have quite the same weather pattern. For Marysville, it forecast partly cloudy skies with more normal temperatures than they had at the start of the week and it kinda looked like that.

Honolulu at 2:43 p.m.

Waikoloa at 2:43 p.m.

CFHT at 2:43 p.m.

Hilo Bay at 2:45 p.m.

Marysville at 2:48 p.m. HST.

There were 49 new cases of COVID-19 reported today, bringing the total known cases up to 37,807. There was 21 new death reported increasing the number of fatalities to 518; currently there are 585 cases considered active. There have been 1,684,398 vaccines administered; thus 58% of the state population is  now fully vaccinated and  63% have received at least 1 dose.

Hauʻoli lā Hānau e Sandy & Brad!