Ōlaʻa Beauty (w/ Richie on Bass)
Frank Kawikapuokalani Hewett
Frank Hewett wrote this song to elaborate on the delicateness of the Ola'a Beauty,
a unique flower that grows wild in the uplands in the fields and along the roadside
near his home in Ola'a near Hilo, Hawai'i. The flower has velvety dark violet petals
and blooms in the spring and summer. The lei is called nani-o-Ola'a.
While in Ola’a, he wrote “E Ku’uipo Ola’a Beauty”, the name of a
tiny purple flower that take 1,000 blossoms to make one lei.
The song is based on the legend of High Chiefess Laie-I-ka-wai who tried but
never did find her true love. She finally married the Sun God and lived in the
heavens with his parents. While the Sun was visiting the Earth,
Laie went to the temple and looked into a bowl of water to see why the Sun was
away so long and saw him with her twin sister Laie-lohelohe.
Laie cried and cried with sadness so his parents placed her into the heavens
as the twilight. The Sun God was banished from the Sun by his parents
and became a wandering spirit on Earth.
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Updated: 2023-11-15T21:04:49-1000 (HST)