LAHAINA – Lahainaluna High School’s time-honored tradition, the David Malo Day Ho’olaule’a, will be held on Saturday, April 21, on the school’s Boarders’ Field.

At 5 p.m., a pa’ina (poi and laulau supper) opens the festivities. The fee is $17 for the supper. Tickets are available at the main office. For more information, call 662-4000.

At 6 p.m., a free sunset pageant produced by the Hawaiiana Club and Boarders’ Chorus will take the audience from our unique legacy into the future. This year’s theme is “Welina, O’ahu” (To you, O’ahu).

Stories told through songs and hula will bring to life a part of our culture, traditions, values and wisdom learned from our kupuna.

This year, the program, through storytelling, will describe what life was like on Oahu, the “Gathering Place.”

The program will begin with traditional chants honoring royalty living on Oahu. Next, the Boarders’ Chorus and Hawaiiana Club will detail the history of that island through the perception of politicians, musicians, educators, entertainers, businesses, sports, locals, tourists, the military and through songs extolling beloved and sacred places.

This iconic event, first called David Malo Day in 1972, is a venue in which students learn to give back to the community – one that has embraced and supported Lahainaluna High School since its founding in 1831.

Aunty Lori Gomez-Karinen, advisor to the Hawaiiana Club and Boarders’ Chorus and director and producer of David Malo Day, explained, “It is a humble gesture of mahalo and appreciation to all of our communities. And, it is a means for students to learn not only how to give of themselves but also to understand that it is our kuleana (responsibility) to steward a sense of giving, a sense of sharing and a sense of continuity; to be contributing members of our global society. Indeed, in a world so obsessed with ‘selfies,’ the wisdom of our kupuna is that a family works best when you think of others first.”

The event is named after Malo, one of the first to graduate from Lahainaluna. He went on to become a teacher, an advisor to King Kamehameha III, an entrepreneur and a preacher.

The late Jimmie Greig, a civil engineer for Pioneer Mill Company, and then Lahainaluna Principal Ralph Murakami were the two visionaries who reinstated the Boarders’ Chorus and started the Hawaiiana Club in 1969.

In 1971, the two organizations put on the first David Malo Day.