Guests of the Kahala Hotel are in for a sweet treat on New Year’s Eve, with a Hawaii first. Not to be outdone by New York’s Times Square or the Sydney Opera House, Hawaii will now have its own glittering LED-lighted papier-mache pineapple, which will drop 10 stories from the hotel’s rooftop to usher in 2011.
Constructed by staffers, using chicken wire, newspaper and wallpaper paste, the hand-built pineapple, with lighted eyes, will be more than 8-feet tall and weigh in at more than 200 pounds. The pineapple pays homage to one of Hawaii’s most popular pineapple varieties, the Smooth Cayenne.
It will be hoisted by crane, wires and pulleys, and descend at the stroke of midnight, ringing in the New Year in grand Hawaiian style.
Admission to the New Year’s Eve Party and Pineapple Drop, from 10 p.m. to 12:30 a.m., is $50 for adults.
A bit of history: The pineapple has long been synonymous with Hawaiian hospitality. While the exact date of the pineapple’s arrival in Hawaii is the subject of debate, most historians agree that it arrived on Spanish ships as early as 1527.
Spanish horticulturalist Francisco de Paula Marin arrived in Hawaii in 1794 and began experimenting with raising pineapples in the early 1800s. As a friend and advisor to King Kamehameha I, Marin might have encouraged the king to support an industry that had impact well into the late 20th century.
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