The MAMF May 2025 Facebook Banner

May is Asian American And Pacific Islander Heritage Month. To celebrate, this month’s MAMF Facebook banner features a child placing a lei on a grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, also known as Punchbowl cemetery. In this week’s blog, I’ll go over this uniquely Hawaiian tradition of placing leis on graves, a little bit about the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, and why it is also called Punchbowl.

According to an article by Kathleen Wong in USA Today, “the tradition of the lei dates back to the beginning of Hawaiian culture when it was brought over by the Polynesians who migrated to the Hawaiian Islands,”¹ which means the tradition has been going on for more than a thousand years.²

A National Geographic article by Megan Mosely states that “For centuries, the garlands were used for religious rituals, by chiefs (aliʻi), and were believed to even be worn by deities (akua) when they assumed human form. The art, though exalted, was not exclusively for the privileged and was worn by all in Hawaiian society.”³ 

However, leis are not just for deities and celebrations. Much like the Hawaiian word “aloha,” a lei can mean hello but it can also mean goodbye; and it can serve as a final goodbye to those who have departed from this world.⁴ This is why it has become traditional to place lei on the graves of departed loved ones.

Every year on Memorial Day at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, 38,000 lei are placed on the graves of departed soldiers. In this memorial event we see the merging of cultures and traditions. While in other places poppies and flags are traditionally placed on the graves of departed soldiers, in Hawaii lei are placed on those graves as well.

In Hawaii, May day (May 1st) is Lei day. May day is a European tradition that goes back thousands of years; so Lei Day also represents a merging of cultures. In addition to the celebration of spring (which doesn’t really occur in Hawaii, since it is a tropical island that has consistently warm and pleasant weather year round), Leis also represent the expression of love and appreciation for loved ones.

On Memorial day, which occurs on the last Monday of May, placing lei on graves is the ultimate respectful and loving farewell to those who served our country.

May in Hawaii is bookended with flowers in the form of lei.

Now for the third thing I said I would cover: why is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific called Punchbowl Cemetery? The answer is geological as the cemetery sits in the Punchbowl caldera of an extinct volcano. It is named Punchbowl because of its distinctive bowl-like shape.

I think it’s obvious why MAMF chose to focus on the placing of lei on the graves at Punchbowl Cemetary, since May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. As such, I’d like to leave you with a quote from Admiral Harry Harris, who was the first American of Japanese descent to lead US Pacific Command and was the highest-ranking American of Japanese descent in U.S. Navy history during his time as commander.⁶ He also served as the 23rd American Ambassador to South Korea under Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump from July 25, 2018 – January 20, 2021:

“America’s greatest asset is not our assembly lines or weapons systems, or even our great ships, submarines, and airplanes … it’s our people.”

I couldn’t agree more.

As usual, this month’s MAMF banner features the ubiquitous symbol of the American military BRAT, the dandelion. In this month’s image I have placed a dandelion lei on the head of a child who, instead of planting a flag on a grave at Punchbowl, is planting a dandelion fluff. There is also a dandelion lei placed on the grave.

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Source material:

¹ “What Does a Lei Mean in Hawaii, Can Anyone Wear One?” n.d. USA TODAY. https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2023/05/01/lei-day-hawaii-tradition/11741844002/.

² The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2019. “Hawaiian | People | Britannica.” In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hawaiian.

³ Moseley, Megan. 2024. “Hawaii’s Lei Day Is about so Much More than Flowers.” Culture. May 2024. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/lei-day-hawaii-native-plants-history.

⁴ “Funeral Leis & Sympathy Flowers.” n.d. Flower Leis. https://www.flowerleis.com/info/when-to-give/funeral-leis-flowers/.

⁵ 2024. Hawaii.edu. 2024. https://www2.hawaii.edu/~turner/oahu/pnchbwl.htm.