The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-03-04
HAWAII, THE PEARL OF
THE PACIFIC"
The Eighth of Series OF Letters by John
X. MusiCk.
AUTHOR OF "THE COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL
NOVELS" "BRoTHER AGAINST BROTHER"
ETo., ETC.
Copyright, 1896, by FUNK & wAsNALLs COMPANY
New York;
Hawaiian Holidays and How
They are Observed.

The Hawaiian holidays are twelve in
number, and are strange mingling OF
American, European, and Asiatic civil
and religious observances. January LIST
is holiday, being New Years day; jan
uary 18th is a holiday, 10 celebration of
the downfall of monarchy February 18th
is Chinese New Year March 17lh, KAN
ehameha III's. birthday; Good Friday /;
May oath, birthday of Queen Victoria !;
May 30th, Decoration Day June 11th,
Kamehameha Day July Alb, Birthday
of the r public and American Iudepen-
dence; November 2Sth, Recognition of
Hawaiian Independence Thanksgiving
Day and Christmas. II all holidays are
kept as Christmas, the Hawaiians will
not soon forget the several events they
celebrate.
left Kaiaua on December %, 1895, on
the Inter.Island Steamer w. G. Hall, for
Honolulu, and was surprised to find the
steamer crowded with people OF all pos
sible shades of complexion and stations
in life, all bound for Honolulu to spend
the holidays. The school teacher from
Hawaii, the clerk and plantation man
ager from Maui, all boarded the Hall for
the capital city. Quite a gay party OF
fair and dark ladies and gentlemen were
assembled on the deck Of the steamer as
she piled the waters, and guitars and
baujos were brought out, singing and
instrumental music being the order until
late hour.
By daylight on the Oath we were at the
dock 10 Honolulu. The day was as warm
as one In July. Men went about in white
duck suits and straw hats, many of the
natives were bare.footed, and, so far as
| the weather was concerned, there was no
Indication whatever of Christmas. But
the shops displayed the usual amount of
| Christmas toys, the churches were dec
GRATED with Christmas trees, and it only
lacked cold weather and winter garb to
make one sure 1t was Christmas indeed.
| When evening came on | walked out on
the streets and found them all brilliantly
| lighted up, and the shop men doing a
| thriving business. Fort street and Hotel
street, and other principal streets, were
throngrd with men, women and children
so that one could scarcely squeeze his
way through. II almost reminded one Of
Fourteenth and Twenty-third streets,
New York, during the holiday trade.
/ AhOn mi 6Ilad NTH
trinkets, and holiday presents, some dis
| played with the most excellent taste.
| Articles OF bright colors seemed to attract
the natives most. The Hawaiian loves
the beautiful, the gaudy, the brilliant.
He does pot always display the most ap.
proved of tastes in the selection of colors,
for blue and pink, red and yellow are
liable to be mingled promiscuously in the
makeup of his or her dress.
An incident attracted my attention
which will illustrate what 1t Is to be in a
tropical country during the Christmas
holidays. saw a great throng OF ma
lives gathered In front OF n sonfeo;ion-
cry shop on Fort street, who seemed to
be greatly excited and talking rapidly In
their native language, the object which
was attracting their attention being evil
IDENTIFY on the sidewalk. One put his
| finger forward as il to touch some object
and suddenly jerked 1t away again as If
| the creature was alive and had bitten
him. | pressed forward to get glimpse
| of the wonder and 1t proved to be-a
large square cake OF ice. That Ice at
| tractcd more attention than anything on
exhibition that evening. 10 the center
OF 1t was frozen some California fruit,
aud the natives stood around ii, occasion
| ally touching 1t with their fingers, until
It melted entirely away, which was late
| In the night.
Christmas was celebrated here more as
| Fourth OF July than Christmas. The
Kanaka boy does not know how to cele
brate II he cannot make u noise, and fire.
crackers are his hearts delight. He dis
charges them by the bunch in imitation
of the Chinese, and not singly as the
| American boy does. All night long on
Christmss Eve the irecrackers were pop
ping, and they continued during all the
next day. There were services ia all the
| churches and Sunday schools similar to
such services In the United States on
| Christmas Day. The native churches
| had their Christmas trees, the different
American and the European churches
their trees and appropriate ceremonies.
| The Chinese and japanese Christian
| churches, In imitation OF their white
brothers, also had Christmas trees and
devotional services.
attended the Japanese M. T.. Church
| Christmas tree. The hall In which the
services were conducted was beautifully
decorated with large fern tree 10 one
corner, ornamented with candles and
| tinsel paper, and loaded with pretty pre-
sents. The entertainment began by sing
ing by the japanese. The music was
familiar but the words were not. Then
X. Kahasaki, one OF the Japanese work
ers, read chapter from the Bible in his
own language. This was followed by
| prayer from s. Nishi, an p ming address
by A. lwamoto, q hymn, Eyes, Jesus
Loves Me, by seven Japanese boys; this
followed by Rotations in Japanese and
| English by several little boys. II. Ma.
kano, boy not over twelve or fourteen
years of age, delivered an address in
English to the Americans present, which
might have done credit to one much more
advanced in years.
| After the benedction came the presen-
tation of gifts. This was novel, anu
sing aud expensive TO congregation as
small and poor as the Japanese, as in ad.
ditlon to the special gifts on the Christ
mas tree for individual friends, they pro.
vided gifts for visitors and all, and the
house was well crowded with visitors.
The pastor Of the church, Rev. Ii. Kihara,
delivered an address to his people in Jap.
nnese, and he was followed by Rev. ii.
w. Peck, OF the Methodist church. Then
four young Japanese went through the
audience and distributed little rolls of
paper about the size of a pipe-stem.
When unrolled each paper was found to
have number on 1t, there being a CORE.
spending number on each package
brought for distribution. Some Of the
presents were quite costly aud others
cheap. The calling off Of numbers OF
packages and Distribution OF presents
caused quite little hutter of excitement,
as there was considerably incongrulty 10
the directions they went, many grown
| men drawing lin horns mr. a M In q, ka nlrnt.