A May Day Basket & May Day Memories from Hawai’i!

Happy May Day, y’all! Aloha!!! I realized just a few days ago that May 1st was right around the corner, now today! I started remembering May Days from when I was a little girl growing up on Oahu, Hawaii (1970-1974). We always celebrated May Day at school with crepe paper steamers taped to a pole and the students in our classroom would each grab a streamer then dance around and around the pole while singing…

I don’t remember what we sang or what the teachers taught us about May Day, but I know that the King Kamehameha Day parade happened around that same time each year.

Actually, after just looking this up, it turns out that King Kamehameha is celebrated throughout the month of June, depending on where you live on the Islands.

This year, the King Kamehameha Day Parade in downtown Honolulu, O’ahu, will be on our nation’s Flag Day ~ June 14th, 2025, from 9:00am – 10:00am. Celebrations follow at Kapiolani Park beginning at 11:00am, which is basically right in the same area. I’m pretty sure we parked at Kapiolani Park years ago when we sat on a curb and watched all the parade participants stroll by.

Pretty cool!

I remember being in Kapiolani Park many weekends playing with my brothers around the huge air roots of the banyan trees while my dad was rehearsing for upcoming shows with a theater troop there. Dad performed in Beggar’s Opera, Desert Song, Aida, The Mass, and I think this was the first time he was in The Mikado over the four years we were stationed on Oahu.

My father played The Grand Poobah with three different productions of The Mikado throughout all the years he performed in local theaters.

May Day Victorian Tussy Mussies

Back when I first started blogging, I wrote a post on how to create these tussy mussies from rolled up craft paper. They are also called Victorian candy cones and that is the title I originally used in that post.

I used leftover laces and ribbons from my craft room stash of supplies and gave several away for Christmas to friends at school or our students.

A friend from Girl Scouts taught our girls how to make these at one of our meetings back in the early 2000’s. The idea for the tussy mussies the girls made in Scouts was to surprise your neighbors and friends by hanging them on their front doors early, early in the morning. They would be filled with candies and little presents. After hanging them, you’d doorbell ditch!

Sooo fun!!!

Today’s May Day basket

I started this basket with an old Hawaiian shirt my mother-in-law gave me several years ago. I haven’t worn it but it is vintage 1980’s to 1990’s.

To that, I layered in a lavender and pearl turned-and-stitched cloth necklace my mother had in her costume jewelry box. I think it was much darker purple but has faded over the decades. She wore often when we lived on Oahu. Then I added in a party lei with blue and white flowers along with a lanyard I brought back from one of my trips to Oahu (1980 or 1983). It might be something my MIL brought back from one of their trips, too. I forget! 😉

I also added in a blue and white hibiscus flower which were scattered all over the round tables from our Hawaiian Friday-night get-together at the IOOF Texas State Assembly in Corsicana, Texas this past March.

After a bit, I realized that “dead space” of the naked wood top of the Longaberger basket frame needed something… (The wreath in the background is what I have had hanging on our front door for spring.)

I thought about adding a few postcards, but I haven’t found my 1980 photo album from my Seniors to Hawaii trip (senior in high school as compared to “being a senior,” lol! 😉 ). I know there are postcards in it.

But what about adding a book?? I pulled out these Island Heritage Bank gift books my mom would pick up when she deposited her paychecks. Not only did we read these as children, but I read them to my children, too.

Urashima Taro is a favorite story!

This basket needed something smaller, though. I remembered this Big Island book I have had since our 1971 trip over as a family, which talks about Hawaii’s Black Sand beach, the green sand beaches, Volcanoes National Park, Kailua-Kona (where the Ironman Triathlon takes place each October), and many other scenic places around the island.

My family stayed at Kilauea Military Camp, which is part of/or near Volcanoes National Park. We stayed in cabins there. We flew over for a week each time, during the summer of 1971 and again in 1973. Both times we saw eruptions!!!

https://www.nps.gov/media/video/view.htm?id=5AED7599-EC9A-461B-AD24-E7BBF5EB15B5

My father took tons of slides of Kilauea Iki erupting (1971) and the second time when Halemaumau Crater erupted (1973). The day before Halemaumau erupted, my father, Auntie Ellie, cousin Billy and my brother Frank hiked the crater on the wood trail. Years later, I asked my dad why he didn’t take me (as I was athletic, even then) and his thought was that “girls didn’t do that.” I ended up staying behind to help my mom take care of my little brothers, which helped my mom out.

You wouldn’t believe how unbelievably HOT lava is, even from 100+ feet away from an eruption! I still remember that, even after fifty years. We got to view the eruption in 1971 from a viewing platform up along the canyon rim which was supervised by park rangers.

You could watch volcanoes erupt, at least back then. Not sure if you can nowadays. It’s tolerating the sulphur smoke blowing all around, that’s the problem. 😉

With this book’s addition, my May Day basket now felt complete. I love how this May Day memory basket turned out! Please leave a comment and let me know how you celebrate the day and if you’ve ever been over to the Hawaiian Islands. Did you get to experience an eruption?

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Happy May Day, dear friends,