February 20, 2020:
Kona Historical Society Shrove Tuesday Special Bake. Kona Historical Society will make its famous Portuguese cinnamon bread to celebrate Shrove Tuesday on February 20, from 10-noon at Kona Historical Society’s stone oven, or forno, located in the pasture below the Society’s Kalukalu Headquarters and its historic general store museum in Kealakekua. The public is invited to watch Kona Historical Society staff and volunteers create these sticky, sweet loaves of cinnamon bread. Attendees will also learn about the traditional art of Portuguese bread making and the contributions of the Portuguese, who arrived in Hawaii in the 1880s. While many of these immigrants worked in the sugar plantations, a fair number did find their way to Kona dairies and are credited for helping develop this industry. Kona Historical Society makes cinnamon bread on Shrove Tuesday to pay homage to the days of the sugar plantations of the 1800s, when resident Catholic Portuguese would mark the day by eating richer, fatty foods and desserts before the ritual fasting of the Lent season, which lasts 40 days. They would often use up butter and sugar prior to Lent by making large batches of malasadas, the well-known and beloved Portuguese doughnut without a hole. Shrove Tuesday is also known as Fat Tuesday. Cinnamon bread loaves, each costing $8, can be purchased starting at 12:30 p.m. Bread sales go until 4 p.m. or sold out. konahistorical.org