Lanai Culture and Heritage Center leads Memorial Day cemetery tribute

LANAI (HawaiiNewsNow) – Residents on Lanai spent Memorial Day weekend honoring kupuna and loved ones through a community-wide cemetery tribute.

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The Lanai Culture and Heritage Center organized the effort, aiming to place flowers at every marked grave across the island’s cemeteries.

On Friday, community members gathered at the center to make hundreds of handmade bouquets ahead of Monday’s graveside visits and cemetery cleanup.

Officials said more than 1,000 people are buried across Lanai’s cemeteries, including veterans and immigrant families who came to the island during the pineapple plantation era.

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The center said the tribute honors generations who helped shape Lanai’s history and culture.

Monday’s observance includes a community cemetery cleanup and bouquet-laying ceremonies at gravesites across the island.

The Lanai Culture and Heritage Center said it hopes the annual effort continues to bring residents together to remember and celebrate the lives of kupuna and ancestors.

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