We have a bit more Honolulu public art to look at: This time we're looking at the Waikiki statue of Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, by local artist Sean K.L. Browne, who also created Waikikiʻs King Kalakaua statue and a variety of abstract sculptures around the island and elsewhere, including a couple of posts that went up here back in March 2024. At that point I realized that not only did I not have a post about his Prince Kūhiō statue in Waikiki, I apparently had no photos at all of it. I happened to be in town at the time, so I went to take a few, going late to avoid tourists in the shot. Well, that plus that time of day was when I remembered I needed photos, and I was flying out the next day.
The reason the statue is covered in slightly wilted leis is that I took these photos a few days after Kuhio Day (his birthday, March 26th), which is celebrated as a state holiday. The real kind of holiday, where state employees and schoolkids get the day off. Per local tradition, statues of royals and other admired people get leis on their birthdays, or holidays associated with them, and everyone gets leis on Lei Day (May 1st, not an official holiday), and it's also fine to put leis on statues any other time of the year if the spirit moves you to do so.
A related tradition holds for non-statues, where a high school or college graduation means a day of awkwardly stumbling around piled up to your eyes with infinite leis while your whole extended family beams with pride.
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