Sovereignty Restoration Day (original) (raw)

Sovereignty Restoration Day (Hawaiian: Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea) is a national holiday of the former Hawaiian Kingdom celebrated on July 31 and still commemorated by Native Hawaiians in the state of Hawaii. It honors the restoration of sovereignty to the kingdom, following the occupation of Hawaiʻi by Great Britain during the 1843 Paulet Affair, by British Rear-Admiral Richard Darton Thomas and when King Kamehameha III uttered the phrase: Ua Mau ke Ea o ka ʻĀina i ka Pono ("The life of the land is preserved in the righteousness of the people").