Cook Islands Tiare Festival
A beautiful celebration of flowers on the island of Rarotonga
Each November, the Tiare festival on Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, celbrates the beauty and cultural significance of flowers in the islands.
The Tiare festival is an annual event on the island of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands with cultural events, floral decoration, parades and competitions.
Flowers are a central part of the culture of the Cook Islands and are used in almost every celebration. The islands have a huge array of flowers in almost every shape and color you can imagine. They are used to decorate shops, homes and public buildings and are considered most beautiful when worn in the hair and as a garland. It is customary for visitors to these beautiful islands to be presented with flowers, often a hibiscus or gardenia.
Each November the Tiare Festival celebrates the beauty of the flowers of the Cook Islands. Everyone takes part, overnight business premises and public buildings are festooned with flowers and homes are filled with the scent of gardenias. The festival highlights include; flower arranging competitions, parades of floats adorned with flowers, the Miss Tiare beauty pageant and lots of other competitions including the best decorated government building.
The festival is named Tiare from the maori name for a flower or flowering plant and is commonly used to refer to the gardenia; the national flower.
Any visitor to the Cook Islands falls in love with the flowers, the white gardenia with its fabulous scent, and the spectacular flame-red native hibiscus are perhaps the most striking. The Tiare Festival is a wonderful and enchanting time to visit the islands and experience the floral beauty of this magnificent part of the world.
To time your holiday with the Tiare festival check for the dates at http://oceania-island-travel.suite101.com/article.cfm/whats_on_in_the_cook_islands_2007
