Aloha and welcome to the 2008 International Festival of Canoes held each year in Lahaina on Maui. The eleventh annual celebration brings together master canoe carvers from all over the Pacific to carve traditional canoes, paddles. pahu drums, surfboards and constructing canoe hales (houses). The photos will be updated daily or as often as possible. The festival begins with a traditional Hawaiian greeting following ancient protocol. Master carvers and their teams as well as sponsors are welcomed in with chants and 'awa (kava). For the first week of the festival, master carvers and their teams make rough cuts on the logs in Kamehamehaiki Park in Lahaina and begin to get the basic shape of the canoes. The second week of the festival, carving teams finish the canoes under the historic Banyan Tree in Lahaina. On the final day of the festival (May 31) the canoes are put on floats and introduced to the community in a parade down front Street in Lahaina. Following the parade the boats are placed gently on the beach fronting Kamehamehaiki Park. A ti leaf lei is placed on the stern of the canoe and the other end in buried in the sand representing an unbilical cord that connects the canoe to the land. In a traditional Hawaiian ceremony, the symbolic umbilical cords are cut by the master carver or someone they designate on their team and the canoes are launched simultaneously as the sun sets into the Pacific Ocean. The event is free and open to the public.