Le'ale'a

Welina me ke aloha e nā hoa pepeiao! E ola ka 'ōlelo Hawai'i, the Hawaiian language lives. As we celebrate the Hawaiian Immersion program here on Maui in its 20th year, let's focus on our 'ōlelo Hawai'i this week. Today's word is Le'ale'a which comes from the word le'a. It means joy, pleasure, to have a good time, to have fun. Laule'a means happiness, peace and friendship. When we add ho'o to the word we get ho'olaule'a, celebration, gathering, festival, to restore friendship and peace. This past weekend was filled with so much le'ale'a for our 'ohana. We celebrated with family and friends, we watched a loved one begin her journey in marriage. We danced, we sang, we laughed and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly! We all live busy lives and it is important for us to take time to include le'ale'a, joyfulness in our ives. We also need to set aside time to ho'olaule'a, come together to celebrate life's milestones. There are many reasons to celebrate. This week we celebrate 20 years of Hawaiian Language Immersion here on our island Maui. Our language is living, thriving once again. From our little keiki to our wise kūpuna, people are speaking the mother tongue of this land! This is something to celebrate! Tune in this week as celebrate the revitalization of the Hawaiian language and the impacts of Ke Kula Kaiapuni and as we do so, may we find le'ale'a, joy and happiness along the way! Aloha nō, a hui hou!