Fifth in the series on Christmas in Hawai`i
In 1862, King Kamehameha IV and his wife, Queen Emma, were confirmed in the Anglican Communion. Following this, it became the Royal pair's wish that Hawai'i should celebrate the Christian holiday. They issued a Royal Proclamation declaring Christmas to be a National Holiday for the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
As Christmas was beloved by most Europeans, the English, and certainly the merchants who stood to profit with sales of gifts and goodies, much of the island population received the proclamation with great enthusiasm. The missionaries, however, had a different take.
New England missionary Gerrit P. Judd, a physician as well as an advisor and translator to the king later wrote about Liholiho: "…Educated by the Mission, most of all things dislikes the Mission. Having been compelled to be good when a boy, he is determined not to be good as a man."
Though the new Hawaiian Reformed Catholic Church was housed in a temporary building awaiting construction of the cathedral, as a church it was fully functional. The King had cypress boughs brought from the mountains to decorate the place of worship, and the cathedral choir began practicing Christmas carols.
Liholiho ordered guns mounted atop Pūowaina (Punchbowl), a quiescent cinder cone which provided a backdrop to the royal residence, to be fired in a salute as a part of the festivities. Though still in mourning for their child, Prince Albert, Liholiho and Emma planned to make this first official Christmas in Hawai'i an event to be remembered!
Christmas Eve was filled with anticipation. At midnight mass, the first official Hawaiian Christmas service was conducted. Christmas carols, sung by the choir, rang out through the tropical night.
Following the service, the King and Queen led the people from the church in a torchlight procession to the palace grounds. Then, the big guns boomed a salute from the heights of Pūowaina. Containers of of flaming tar were rolled down the slopes, forming flaming streams in imitation of a lava flow down the slopes of Pūowaina. As the flames dies away, the night sky exploded in fireworks! The festival concluded in the early morning as the crowd sang "Good King Wenceslas.”
- First in the series on Christmas in Hawai`i - The Advent of Christmas in Hawai`i
- Second in the series on Christmas in Hawai`i - The First Christmas celebration in Hawai`i
- Third in the series on Christmas in Hawai`i - The Missionaries and Christmas in Hawai`i
- Fourth in the series on Christmas in Hawai`i - Christmas finally becomes official in Hawai`i
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