The perpetuation of Hula Kahili, and Hawaiian history and culture
The first Merrie Monarch Festival was held in Hawaii in 1964. Since 1971 it has been directly inspired by the two week long Silver Jubilee Festival in 1886 held by the reigning monarch of the Hawaiian nation. The monarch was King David La?amea Kalakaua, elected in 1874 and reigning until his death in 1891. He advocated for a renewed sense of pride in ingenuity and in all things Hawaiian such as the arts, medicine, music, and hula. He acted to honour disappearing traditions like chant and hula, which were the means to record, express and chronicle such things as genealogy, mythology, history, Hawaiian knowledge and religion, and to set it down in written form for the future.
