HAWAI`I SENATORS PUSH BIPARTISAN BILL FOR NEW STATE HOLIDAY
Honolulu Star-Advertiser - March 10, 2025
The list of annual state holidays in Hawai`i could grow by one under legislation that easily passed a milestone last week.
State senators voted 25-0 to approve and send to the House of Representatives a bill that would make Nov. 28 La Ku `oko `a, or Hawaiian Independence Day, as Hawai`i’s 14th official state holiday.
The Legislature in 2023 passed a bill to designate Nov. 28 as La Ku `oko `a to celebrate a historical recognition of the kingdom of Hawai`i’s independence dating to 1843. But that measure, which became Act 11, did not make the day a state holiday.
Now state lawmakers, via Senate Bill 614, are considering elevating La Ku `oko `a to an official holiday.
“We celebrate Fourth of July, American Independence Day, as an official state holiday, ” Sen. Kurt Fevella, a Republican who introduced the bill with two Democratic colleagues, Sens. Stanley Chang and Carol Fukunaga, said in the Senate chamber preceding Tuesday’s vote.
“It’s a day when 13 American colonies separated from Great Britain, ” said Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Ocean Pointe-Iroquois Point ). “But why haven’t we celebrated when Hawai`i became a sovereign nation as a state holiday ? … Colleagues, let’s stand together for the Independence Day of our Hawai`i nei.”
