Mike Mack and Fletcher Prouty hang sections of pork in the walk-in cooler at Holy Ghost Mission on Friday. A total of 4,200 pounds of beef and 800 pounds of pork went into the cooler while crews get ready to make 7,000 laulau for next weekend’s Holy Ghost Feast. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
It was the early 1940s and a widespread drought had left Upcountry ranchers and farmers desperate for rain to feed their thirsty crops and cattle, Kula resident Winona Shim remembered.
So, the close-knit community of Portuguese Catholic immigrants did the only thing it could: Prayed, pleading for rain as members marched through town during the annual Holy Ghost Feast procession.
Soon after, the rain fell. Grateful farmers came to church thanking God for a blessing that was reminiscent of the time their ancestors in Portugal had been spared from famine in the 13th century.
The Holy Ghost Feast had always been a time of celebration. But it was especially meaningful that year.
“The feasts are always in thanksgiving of what our heavenly father, by his amazing grace, has given us,” Shim said. “I understand it now in my older life. I didn’t then as a kid.”
Octagon-shaped Holy Ghost Mission stands tall Friday afternoon. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Saturday and June 4, the Kula Catholic Community will mark the 125th anniversary of a tradition it’s kept alive since the first Portuguese came to Maui in the late 1800s. Parishioners will meet over food, games and entertainment and, as is customary, share a free laulau meal with the community in honor of Queen Elizabeth of Portugal.
Three churches make up the Kula Catholic Community: St. James the Less Mission in Ulupalakua, Holy Ghost Mission in Waiakoa and Our Lady Queen of the Angels in Keokea.
“Obviously, it’s in celebration of the Pentecost and the Catholic community, but it’s also got some very deep roots in regards to giving back to the community,” said Lani Arrieta, a member of the feast committee.
Portuguese immigrants first sailed to Hawaii in 1878 to work in the sugar cane fields, according to the Library of Congress. Many immigrants on Maui, upon finishing their contracts, moved Upcountry to become ranchers and farmers, according to the Kula Catholic Community.
In 1892, the Azorean people in Portugal sent a replica of Queen Elizabeth’s crown as a gift to the Kula community. That year, with the Holy Ghost Mission still under construction, parishioners held their first feast.
The altar and stations of the cross shine Friday afternoon inside Holy Ghost Mission. -- The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Traditionally, the feast takes place during Pentecost, 50 days after Easter. Pentecost celebrates the outpouring of the Holy Spirit onto Jesus’ disciples, allowing them to preach to people in their own languages, as described in the biblical book of Acts.
For Portuguese, this religious holiday also is a reminder of another miracle. During the 13th century, the Azores Islands, located nearly 1,000 miles west of mainland Portugal, suffered a series of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Famine and drought ravaged the land and, in desperation, the people prayed for help. On the morning of Pentecost Sunday, a ship bearing food and other necessities sailed into port. Gleefully, the people distributed the food throughout the islands.
Queen Elizabeth, who was born in Spain and was also known by her Spanish name, Isabel, caught wind of the miracle and organized a procession in honor of the Holy Ghost. Carrying her crown through Lisbon, she placed it on the altar of a cathedral in thanksgiving. After that, the queen started a tradition of feeding the poor at Pentecost. Every year, she chose 12 people to receive a new set of clothing and share a meal at her table.
To this day, Portuguese in communities all over the world celebrate the queen’s generosity during the Holy Ghost Feast.
Longtime church member Darlene Janosko loves the family atmosphere that goes into the feast preparation. Both her great-grandfather and her husband’s great-grandfather came from Portugal and helped build the white octagonal Holy Ghost Mission.
“The feast starts for us when we start preparing for the meal,” Janosko said. “What we do is we get together as a community. We work hard together. We laugh together. . . . It’s hard work but it’s fun.”
Everyone pitches in to make laulau. Children pick the ti leaves and wash them before Mass. Local ranchers donate beef and pork, and church members all help cut and salt the meat, wrap the laulau and set it aside for the feast. During the celebration, “the talent on these people comes out,” Janosko said. “The malassadas? Unbelievable. The Portuguese bean soup? Ono.”
“It’s good times,” Arrieta added. “Every family has kind of dedicated themselves to a certain portion of the feast. It’s kind of like you pass it down.”
And, of course, every feast needs a queen. Each year, a young woman who’s active in the church is selected to honor Queen Elizabeth’s legacy.
Shim (nee Tavares) said that, to her knowledge, she was the first queen chosen for the Maui feast in 1946. After her father sold the most scrips, Shim, then 13, was named queen.
Her family members’ Upcountry roots run deep — their Azorean ancestors helped build the church. Life wasn’t always easy because the family “ate from the land, sewed our own clothes and made our own bread.” But, during the feasts, they gave heartfelt thanks.
“We were very, very poor,” Shim said. “Poor in money . . . but we were rich in love and charity.”
Shim remembered many feasts, from the rain miracle in the 1940s to the laulau meals church members brought to patients at Kula Sanitarium, where Shim worked after high school. But the day she was queen stands out in her mind.
“That particular feast day was glorious, beautiful, absolutely wonderful,” Shim said. “Mama and papa and all the relatives, we all had a wonderful time.”
It was also bittersweet. Shim’s mother, who had cancer, suffered a hemorrhage later that night and died a month later. She was buried at the church cemetery. Today, Shim carries on her parents’ dedication to the church and the feast, which now has much more significance than it did when she was a child washing ti leaves and playing marbles.
This year’s queen is Kamaile Aipa, 17. Aipa has been an altar server at Holy Ghost Mission since the 2nd grade and is part of the youth group and choir.
“It means a lot to me because my family has been in this church for as long as I can remember,” she said. “It’s really, really humbling that I get to give back to the community that has helped to raise me.”
Outside of church, Aipa volunteers with Imua Family Services and Big Brothers, Big Sisters.
“I think (the feast is) really important, because it shows that we are a church, we are a community and our goal is to give back to those who are less fortunate,” Aipa said. “I think it’s important to have that fellowship and to act in the same way that Christ did, just be giving wholeheartedly.”
The Holy Ghost Feast will take place 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 4 at Holy Ghost Mission. Saturday will include live entertainment by comedian Frank De Lima and others, food, games, Mass at 5 p.m. and an auction from 6 to 9 p.m. A special Mass with Honolulu Bishop Larry Silva will start 8:30 a.m. June 4, followed by the queen’s procession at 9:30, the free queen’s meal at 11 and small goods and animal auctions.
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.
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