How Thanksgiving became a holiday in Hawai‘i before the United States

Historians can tell you that, in the United States, President Abraham Lincoln officially made Thanksgiving a national holiday in 1863 after years of unofficial celebration.
Few, however, know that the holiday was observed by royal decree fourteen years earlier in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
What drove the Kingdom to celebrate one of the most American holidays?The answer involves the monarch who ruled Hawaiʻi at the time. The Kingdom's different kings and queens each had their own preferences when it came to foreign allies.While some of his predecessors had favored Great Britain, Kauikeaouli, also known as Kamehameha III, admired the U.S. more. He was particularly impressed by the work American missionaries had done in the islands, former UH Manoa history professor Ralph S. Kuykendall wrote in the first volume of his history "The Hawaiian Kingdom."Hawai‘i already had a close relationship with the U.S. Christian missions of conversion had arrived in Hawai‘i around 1820 through the missionaries.Although their teachings were often at odds with existing Hawaiian culture and religion, Christianity and literacy were both widespread thanks to the work of missionaries from the nation's East Coast.Wanting to show his appreciation, Kauikeaouli designated a holiday to give thanks to the missionaries.In a decree, the King declared Dec. 31, 1849 "a day of public thanksgiving to God, for his unnumbered mercies and blessings to this nation," an announcement in the government-run newspaper The Polynesian said.Kauikeaouli was no stranger to ordering celebrations that went down in history. During a ceremony in 1843 shortly after Hawaiʻi's independence had been threatened by a rogue British military officer, he proclaimed before a crowd: "Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono,” which is often (though not always) translated as "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness" and is the state's motto today.
Source:  http://m.kaleo.org/news/how-thanksgiving-became-a-holiday-in-hawai-i-before-the/article_21d06124-9395-11e5-bf31-b76fa7e249da.html?mode=jqm