First annual TIKI WEEK - 2015

There is no such thing as Tiki Week.  You won't find it in any search, there are no Tiki Weeks in Hawaii, or part of any Mid-Century Modern show or sale.  You see, Tiki Week is the offspring of my imagination - and to fill out a week that needs some pizazz.

What do you do during the end of June, early July before the 4th?  Nothing.  There's nothing going on.  My Dad's birthday was June 25.  I wanted to find a festive way to commemorate it, but also to fill that void of time between Summer Solstice and "Yankee Doodle Dandy".  Hence, Tiki Week was born.

What did I do to celebrate it?  Oh, lots of things.  Did it last exactly one calendar week?  Hell, no!  Do I suggest finding ways to personalize if for yourself?  Indubitably.

MY TIKITIVITIES:

DRESS: I have a vintage barkcloth Hawaiian dress that is frighteningly similar to this one. So I wore that:


DECOR: Here is my fireplace mantle, tikified (Dollar Tree had the really cool fish netting for a buck!  Bless you all over the place, Dollar Tree!:

SCENTS AND FOODSTUFFS: You want to create ambience.  And you want to consume pineappley-coconutty things.  I burned Paradise Punch-scented Scentsy wax in my burner.  I burned mango incense (you can purchase some here: http://www.koamaster.com/product/TW51294/MANGO-INCENSE-W-CERAMIC-HOLDER---HAWAIIAN-GIFT-BOX-SET.html).  I ate a Mounds bar.  I consumed Dole Whip, home-made by my friend, Michelle.  You can find the mix here: http://www.amazon.com/Dole-Pineapple-Serve-Pound-case/dp/B00CCTE5WQ (I highly recommend this as an alternative to flying out to Disney just for the Dole Whip.  Which, at times, I've really wanted to do)

MUSIC: Then there was the music.  Enter, vintage Hawaiian LPs:

I also played my little ukulele.  I don't play well, but I'm learning.  You can purchase a similar ukulele here: http://www.kalabrand.com/KalaUke.html

THE SHENANIGANS: Next, the hubby and I visited our beloved local tiki bar, the great Hala Kahiki, celebrating 50 years this year! http://www.halakahikilounge.com/

I watched "Blue Hawaii" with a gaggle of girlfriends (it was part of a "Tiki Salsa Solstice Celebration" a few days after the solstice.  We did a fire ceremony.  We ate mango salsa and drank mai tais.  I filled a pinata shaped like a pink flamingo with airplane bottles of pink and blue Kinky and Rum Chata.  We cracked it open - the bottles popped out - except for those I had to pull out of its bottom like birthing a breach baby)  And then there was this:

We were enthralled with how men's swim trunks fit back in the 1960s.  It was a positive thing.  We all enjoyed the drape of the fabric (sure, we did). We were also enthralled with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgDeVqn85GY

Oh, and the "houseboy" in the film is called Ping Pong.  Apparently this wasn't a problem back then. Angela Lansbury played Elvis's mother.  She was, in real life, only ten years older than he.

From cine-fille.com

What Tiki Week did was inevitably shine a light on the aloha spirit.  I found this beautiful summary of such on huna.org:

The spirit of Aloha was an important lesson taught to the children of the past because it was about the world of which they were a part. One early teaching goes like this:

Aloha is being a part of all, and all being a part of me. When there is pain - it is my pain. When there is joy - it is also mine. I respect all that is as part of the Creator and part of me. I will not willfully harm anyone or anything. When food is needed I will take only my need and explain why it is being taken. The earth, the sky, the sea are mine to care for, to cherish and to protect. This is Hawaiian - this is Aloha!"

 Tiki week was about the pineapple drinks, the grass skirts, and the campy 60s films.  Oh - and the "Brady Bunch" tiki episode (of course).  

But it was also about being in nature, about really taking in light and water and sun and breeze.  It was the warm evening air brushing against my skin. It was about the peace I needed, the tranquility of our backyard waterfall, the sweet little notes I strum on my ukulele ...

and tiki drinks. There are always the tiki drinks  http://www.jamieoliver.com/drinks-tube/recipe/blue-hawaiian/#5u1keS1VFuXWvH4V.97


And yes, there WILL be a Tiki Week 2016.  But it may last a month.