The lei is known all over the world as a symbol of the aloha spirit. When making a lei the mana (or spirit) of the creator of the lei is woven into it so when you give someone a lei you give away a part of you. The American poet Don Blanding thought there should be a set day to celebrate the tradition of giving and receiving a lei. Presenting his idea to Grace Tower Warren, a columnist at the Honolulu Star Bulletin in 1927 she suggested it should be a day in May, coining the phrase “May Day is Lei Day”. Said and done, the first Lei Day was celebrated on May 1, 1928. The following year Governor Wallace R. Farrington declared that Lei Day should be observed “by all true friends of Hawai’i as a day of celebration – not a State holiday”.

The Blue Hawaii
On January 3, 1957 a representative of the Bols distillery walked into the bar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort) in Honolulu asking the bartender Harry Yee to create a cocktail featuring Bols Blue Curaçao. Mr. Yee tried several variations before settling on a combination of vodka, rum, blue curaçao, pineapple juice and sweet-and-sour mix. The cocktail became an instant hit and remains popular around the world to this day.

Yee was born in Honolulu where his Chinese parents owned a general store. After WWII, during which Yee was a fighter pilot for the Chinese Air Force fighting on the side of Chiang Kai-shek, he got a job at Trader Vic’s, learning everything about tropical drinks. This led him to the job at the Hilton Hawaiian Village serving up tropical drinks to American tourists vacationing in Hawai’i during the 1950s. Most tourists expected to find “Hawaiian drinks” on the menu but since Hawaiians traditionally never used much alcohol Yee had to invent them himself. Apart from the Blue Hawaii Mr. Yee came to invent 15 more cocktails, including the Tropical Itch.