It looks like people and the State of Hawaii love flowers very much and their daily life is well connected with local flowers judging from the fact that the State of Hawaii has its official State Flower (which is yellow hibiscus) and also each Hawaiian island has its own official flower. We can find a couple of Hawaiian customs which have something to do with flowers.
I would like to introduce interesting Hawaiian traditional customs relating to flowers. If you have ever visited Hawaii, you must have found Hawaiian women wearing a flower on top of their hair. In many cases they wear hibiscus which is pretty popular in Hawaii. Hawaiian ladies can easily show if she is single or married by way of adorning a flower on their hair. If a lady wears a flower on the right side of her hair (usually close to the ear), it means she is single and available. On the other hand if she wears it on the left side, it means she is already married or already taken and not available. I heard this story, for the first time, when I visited Hawaii for honey moon long time ago.
This is a very interesting custom because the location of wearing a decorative flower is used as a sign showing their marital status. Suppose you join a party in Hawaii where you meet lots of ladies wearing a flower, you can easily find who is single and who is married if you know this custom.
Another flower related Hawaiian custom is lei which, I believe, many people are familiar with. This is a garland made of local flowers. In Hawaii, each island has its own official flower. And it is said that such official flowers are often used for making leis. Although leis made of flowers are pretty popular and well known all over the world, there are some other types of leis which are not so well known. Those leis are made of other materials such as shells, nuts and seeds which were historically considered very valuable in the daily life of local people in Hawaii. While flower leis are frequently used for welcoming visitors to Hawaii, these types of leis seem to be used mainly among locals by wearing them on hand at the time of special events.
Visitors to Hawaii are welcome by greeters with a warm heart and beautiful flower leis are given to visitors for adorning them, which is definitely a wonderful way to begin a vacation on this tropical island of paradise.
Suppose you visit Hawaii on your honeymoon, you are given a lei by greeters at the airport or hotel that welcome you to Hawaii. Until airplanes became popular for making trips, voyages by a vessel were common. When a boat was scheduled to arrive at Honolulu, lei vendors lined the pier at Honolulu (called Aloha Tower) to welcome visitors to Oahu island and also locals who came back home.
Local residents in Hawaii are very proud of their traditional customs which have been inherited from generation to generation. And they are still keeping such traditional customs in their daily life.
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