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No matter when you visit, there's something special to celebrate in the "Aloha State." Here, a guide to some of the best festivals and events.

When newlyweds arrive in Hawaii, they're naturally in the mood to celebrate. So it's lucky for them that the people who live in the "Aloha State" (which includes the Big Island of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, Kauai, Lanai and Molokai) are almost always throwing a great party somewhere—and are happy to welcome a few more guests. In fact, honeymooners can find fantastic events on these islands every month of the year, highlighting everything from culture and food to sports and the great outdoors. This list showcases a few favorite celebrations on the Hawaiian calendar. Consider yourself invited!

January: Ka Molokai Makahiki Festival

Tranquil, laid-back Molokai, which is officially dubbed "The Friendly Island," takes its "authentically Hawaiian" status very seriously: Locals there tend to refer to the island by its more unofficial monikers—the "Most Hawaiian" isle, or the place where "Old Hawaii" lives on. Their pride in Molokai's Hawaiian roots is what makes the island's celebration of the ancient festival of Makahiki, a four-month season of thanksgiving for the harvest, a unique opportunity for visitors to learn about and participate in traditional Hawaiian culture.

The season of Makahiki begins when the Seven Sisters constellation appears in the fall and concludes when those stars disappear from the night sky, usually in January. On Molokai, the final weeks of the season are marked by the island's low-frills, high-enthusiasm Ka Molokai Makahiki Festival. A range of events is scheduled throughout the month, giving visitors the chance to hear scholars lecture on local history and folklore, to participate in hands-on workshops teaching traditional Hawaiian craft-making, or to watch as local children and adults alike compete in oli (chant) writing contests and ancient sports (the huki huki, a form of tug-of-war, is especially popular with children).

Whichever events visitors decide to attend, the festival will give them an unforgettable insider's perspective on life in these islands—as well as a look at the local efforts to honor and preserve Hawaii's ancient but still thriving Polynesian culture. For more information, go to gohawaii.com/molokai.

February: Chinese New Year and the Narcissus Festival

Oahu is home to a large Asian-American population, made up of people from all over the Orient. In Honolulu, that community’s cultural center is based in the 15 blocks that make up the city’s Chinatown. This once down-at-the-heels neighborhood has experienced a resurgence in the past few years, and trendy shops, cafés, clubs, museums and galleries now sit side by side with Asian markets, Buddhist temples and Hawaiian lei shops.

During the month-long celebration of the Chinese New Year, which in 2007 falls on February 18th, Chinatown comes alive with a host of events spotlighting Chinese culture, including a local celebration called the Narcissus Festival. The festivities kick off with the Lion Dance ceremony, a thousand-year-old tradition in which people don huge, multicolored silk “lion” costumes and perform in the street, and winds up with the local (and, at 51 years old, much newer) tradition of the Narcissus Queen’s coronation ball. Between those events there are free open-air concerts, a dragon parade, fireworks, a pageant to select the queen, fashion shows and an arts fair—more than enough cool stuff to make a day or an evening spent celebrating the arrival of the “Year of the Pig” unforgettable. For more information on Chinatown and the Chinese New Year celebrations, go to chinatownhi.com.

March: Ocean Arts Festival

Each year, between the months of November and May, hundreds of humpback whales arrive in the waters around Hawaii. They’re drawn there—particularly to the area between the islands of Maui and Lanai—because the warm, shallow conditions are ideal for whales to mate and give birth. Protected by myriad conservation laws, the massive mammals are quasi-celebrities in Hawaii: The sight of the peaceful creatures surfacing offshore can literally stop the traffic on waterfront roads. To see the leviathans up close, a whale-watching cruise for travelers during March is a must. (You can find out more about these trips at pacificwhale.org.)Visitors can also join the fun at the Ocean Arts Festival on Maui, which is held at Banyan Tree Park. Local craftspeople and artists from all over the island gather to compete in contests for the best whale-themed art (there’s art for purchase as well). Hula troupes and Hawaiian musicians perform, naturalists give talks on the life of the humpback, and ocean-themed films are screened. Be sure to find out the year’s whale-sighting tally, which is scrutinized throughout the state the way baseball fans analyze stats from the World Series. For more information, go to gohawaii.com.

April: Merrie Monarch Festival

On the Big Island, April brings one of the most colorful events of the year: the Merrie Monarch Festival. The weeklong happening, which celebrates local traditions, is held in honor of King David Kalakaua (nicknamed—you guessed it—the “Merrie Monarch”). He devoted his 20-year reign to restoring Hawaiian traditions, such as hula and its accompanying chant, which Calvinist missionaries had attempted to suppress during the 19th century.

This festival starts each year on Easter Sunday (in 2007, that’s April 8th) with a concert on Coconut Island. Throughout the week, there are daily musical or hula performances, an arts-and-crafts fair and a parade. The hula competitions, which take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, are the showcase events—troupes come from all over the world to enter contests in the “Ancient,” “Modern,” “Solo” and “Troupe” divisions, earning this forty-year-old party the title “The Super Bowl of Hula.” Tickets for the contests can be tough to get, so if you miss out, head to the hula exhibition held on Wednesday night at Edith Kanakaole Tennis Stadium. For more information, go to merriemonarchfestival.org.

Sixty years ago, a group of Jaycees in Honolulu suggested a week of festivities to celebrate Hawaii’s culture, calling the party they’d created “Aloha Week.” Today, that weeklong event has expanded to become a two-month-long blowout, with over 300 events held on all of Hawaii’s islands. Offerings run the gamut, from the serious to the wacky, for example The Big Island’s Poke Contest (poke is Hawaiian-style sushi—raw fish accented with artful combinations of spices), where spectators get to taste the entries after the judging is complete; Oahu’s Downtown Mele—a Honolulu street fair featuring food, dance and musical performances; Maui’s popular ukulele contest; and Lanai’s annual Barbecue Competition. For more information, go to alohafestivals.com.

May: Lei Day

Leis—gorgeous garlands made of flowers, feathers, shells and other natural items—were sacred to ancient Hawaiians (originally, only royalty were permited to wear them). Today these floral creations have become practically synonymous with the islands. Leis are so central to the islands’ identity, in fact, that in the 1920s, a local poet suggested Hawaiians celebrate the fragrant icon with a holiday in its honor, and the community quickly agreed. So on the first of May each year, when other places in the world celebrate May Day, Hawaiians pay tribute to spring’s arrival with Lei Day. Kids hold pageants and performances at school, and adults mark the day by giving and wearing leis.

The high point of the festivities, especially for visitors, is the lei-making competitions that take place on all the islands. On Kauai, for example, the Kaui Museum fills its galleries with exhibits made by local craftspeople, offering the floral creations for sale in a silent auction. And in Honolulu, hundreds of people stand in line to see the entries submitted in the annual lei-making contest, to talk to the artists who created them, and, possibly, to purchase a lei to take home. If you won’t be there by May 1st, fear not: Lei Day celebrations usually extend through the first two weeks of the month. For more information, go to gohawaii.com.

June: The Maui Film Festival

A tropical honeymoon doesn’t make you think of heading to a dark, air-conditioned movie theater, right? That might be why the Maui Film Festival, which has been held on the island for the past seven years, doesn’t require guests to go indoors. Instead, many of the movies are screened at outdoor venues. One of the settings is right on Wailea Beach; another, called the Celestial Cinema, is set on the fairways at the Wailea Golf Club (preceding the double feature, the festival’s staff astronomer gives guests a tour of the night sky).

In addition to the requisite movies, the festival includes talks on the art and craft of moviemaking (honoring stars like Jessica Biel, Luke Wilson, Angela Bassett and Joan Allen), as well as musical performances and a food festival. For more information, go to gohawaii.com.

July: Kapalua Wine and Food Festival

For the past 25 years, the Kapalua Wine and Food Festival, held at the Kapalua Resort on Maui, has brought master sommeliers and celebrity chefs from around the world to Hawaii. The event offers foodies unique culinary experiences—intimate workshops with celebrity chefs (in 2006, for example, 25 participants had the opportunity to cook with Julian Serrano, of Las Vegas’ Picasso restaurant) and to taste rare vintages with some of the world’s most celebrated winemakers (Larry Stone, of California’s legendary Rubicon winery, hosted a dinner last year).

But it’s not all small events. In fact, the festival attracts over 3,000 people each year to panels on various epicurean subjects and to the Grand Tasting, which features dozens of wine-tasting tents hosted by winemakers from over 20 countries. The celebration concludes with the Kapalua Seafood Festival, which spotlights local chefs who offer gourmet dishes, prepared using locally harvested seafood, in a beautiful setting under the stars. For more information, go to kapalua.com.

August: The Hula Kahiko Series

The Volcano Art Center, set within Volcanoes National Park on the Big Island, is devoted to protecting the cultural heritage and environment of Hawaii. One of the most unusual features is its traditional pa hula, a stone platform created for staging hula performances. This outdoor recital space has a location deeply significant to Hawaiian folklore: It overlooks the Kilauea Crater—the mythological birthplace of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire. In August, The Hula Kahiko Series offers free one-hour performances each Wednesday, performed by students of hula schools from all over the state. The shows feature interpreters who can help visitors understand the meaning of the hula’s chants and movements. After seeing a show, head to the Art Center’s gallery porch to see arts-and-crafts demonstrations and to chat with the artists. For more information, go to volcanoartcenter.org.

September: Aloha Festivals

Sixty years ago, a group of Jaycees in Honolulu suggested a week of festivities to celebrate Hawaii’s culture, calling the party they’d created “Aloha Week.” Today, that weeklong event has expanded to become a two-month-long blowout, with over 300 events held on all of Hawaii’s islands. Offerings run the gamut, from the serious to the wacky, for example The Big Island’s Poke Contest (poke is Hawaiian-style sushi—raw fish accented with artful combinations of spices), where spectators get to taste the entries after the judging is complete; Oahu’s Downtown Mele—a Honolulu street fair featuring food, dance and musical performances; Maui’s popular ukulele contest; and Lanai’s annual Barbecue Competition. For more information, go to alohafestivals.com.

October: The Molokai Hoe

The official team sport of Hawaii isn’t football or baseball—it’s the Polynesian sport of outrigger canoe racing. And its championship match takes place each October, when up to 100 teams, both local and international, gather to compete in The Molokai Hoe, a supremely challenging 41-mile canoe race.

The contest starts early in the morning at Hale O Lono Harbor on Molokai, when teams in modern, fiberglass boats head out to sea, creating an unforgettable sunrise spectacle. The canoes then dash through the sometimes-treacherous waters of the Kaiwi Channel, to reach the finish line at Duke Kahanamoku Beach in Waikiki, Oahu. After you see the teams off, enjoy an early-morning breakfast and then hit the beach yourselves. For more information, go to ohcra.com/molokaihoe/molokaihoe.htm.

November: Kona Coffee Cultural Fest

The rich, volcanic soil of Hawaii creates ideal growing conditions for coffee, making Hawaii the only state where farmers produce and sell coffee beans commercially. Over the years, Hawaii has earned a reputation for creating some of the world’s best brews, and among Hawaiian coffees, none is more celebrated than Kona coffee. Unlike most crops, the Kona coffee berry can’t be harvested by machine, so the farms that grow it are typically small and family-owned. That hometown style is what makes the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival so much fun. It’s scheduled right in the middle of the berry-harvesting season, and it features events for the producers of the beans (“cupping” competitions to see who has produced the best crop for the year; speed-picking contests to see who can harvest the berries the fastest), and for coffee fans (workshops on cooking with coffee, tours of coffee plantations). And then there are events that everyone will love—like the parades, pageants and, of course, tastings! For more information, go to konacoffeefest.com.

December: Van’s Pipeline Masters

If you’ve seen Blue Crush, you have a good idea of what this event is all about. The Van’s Rip Curl Pipeline Masters, which takes place on Oahu each December, is one of the world’s premier surfing events, and a thrilling contest to watch. It’s held at The Banzai Pipeline, a seven-mile stretch along the North Shore famous for its fantastic surfing conditions (fantastic for experts, that is—this part of the coast is not for surfing newbies). The Pipeline Masters is scheduled for the months of November and December, when the waves along the Pipeline are at their peak.

Surfers, who must qualify for the contest at a wildcard event or by being ranked among the world’s best in the sport, compete for four days (exact dates for the competition are determined by water conditions each morning). They are ranked by judges, based on their style and execution. It is awe-inspiring to witness the skill and artistry of these athletes as they take on the massive waves. Even total surfing novices can’t fail to be impressed! For more information, go to triplecrownofsurfing.com.