In the United States, we all know about "Black Friday"....the deals, the HUGE sales, the long lines of shoppers.........in general retail mayhem. Even though, this year "Black Friday" will look very different from years past, I've never been a fan of "Black Friday" in general and I will choose to call any and all promotions I do on Thanksgiving weekend, Pōmaika'i (good fortune or blessings). I worked in retail management for many years, so I ALWAYS worked on "Black Friday". For me, Black Friday meant long hours prepping the store for the crazy weekend, standing on my feet for 8-10 hours a day dealing with hundreds of customers now irritated from lack of parking spaces to get into the mall and excessively...
As I mentioned in my previous blog post....both of my parents were exceptional Hawaii artists. My mom, a super creative fashion designer and my dad ....well.....my dad was definitely a pioneer of glassblowing in Hawaii. My father, Murray Aschelman Holt Jr was born in Honolulu, Hawaii to Murray and WIlma Holt. His parents were somewhat typical for the time...his dad was a civil engineer and worked for the US Navy building shipyards. And my grandmother was a title searcher for the State of Hawaii. I'm sure they had high expectations that my dad Jug ( sidebar: my dad's nickname - a shortened version of Juggen, the German word for Junior as my grandfather didn't want him to be called "Junior-boy"), imagine...
wan·der·lust - pt 1
Growing up on an island that is only 44 miles long and 30 miles wide, I developed the overwhelming urge to travel, see other places and experience other cultures.
Celebrations of mothers and motherhood date back to the ancient Greeks and Romans, usually as a part of Spring festivals. In 1905, a woman named Anna Jarvis created the US incarnation of Motherʻs Day as a way to honor her mother and to promote peace and womenʻs rights. She believed that a day should be set aside to honor "the person who has done more for you than anyone in the world". In 1914, it became a National holiday to be celebrated on the second Sunday of May. Although meant to honor motherhood, Anna Jarvis hated the over-commercialization of Motherʻs Day, and ended up fighting to have the holiday annulled and removed from the calendar. From early childhood, I always enjoyed...
The origins of May Day celebrations can be traced back to ancient rituals mainly in European countries. People wove floral garlands, danced around a May Pole and sang and enjoyed the festivities celebrating the arrival of Spring. I distinctly remember having to weave ribbons around the May Pole in elementary school.....I never quite knew what that was all about or how that blended with what we traditionally know as May Day festivities in Hawaii . For many centuries, Native Hawaiians have been making and giving lei as offerings and gifts. A tradition shared in many Polynesian cultures. I remember watching my grandmother stringing lei for a small local florist that used to be on Kuhio Avenue next to the old Kuhio Theaters (corner...
