Jeanne Cooper: Hawaiian Holiday Traditions Include Reviving Ancient One
Mele Kalikimaka and Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!
That phrase appears in many of the Hawaiian Christmas cards I've purchased over the years, and I have to confess for a long time I thought it meant "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." I was about half right -- or maybe three-quarters.
"Mele Kalikimaka," as fans of Hawaiian music will know, is simply the Hawaiian phonetic rendering of "Merry Christmas." (When you only have 13 letters in your alphabet to play with, and every syllable has to end in a vowel, certain English words morph dramatically -- hence the popularity of mini license plates and engraved jewelry with Hawaiianized names.) Similarly, many mainland Christmas traditions are given distinctly Hawaiian twists: Santa rides a surfboard, palm trees and Norfolk pines bear Christmas lights, slack-key guitar carols fill the airwaves.
But as for "Hau'oli Makahiki Hou," things are a little more complicated. You certainly can translate it as "Happy New Year" (literally, "Happy Year Again"), but you would be missing out on the true meaning of Makahiki to native Hawaiians -- and the chance to celebrate a good deal longer than New Year's Eve.
Ancient Hawaiians divided their calendar into two seasons, the dry summer and the wet winter. Summer, or Kau, was about eight months long. Winter, or Makahiki, started the first new moon after the Pleiades constellation (called Makali'i) rose in the east at sunset, usually in late October. That meant rains were coming, but so were four months of R&R.
Under the auspices of the god Lono, fighting was banned in favor of games and feasts. Natural resources were given time to replenish themselves while the tillers of fields and catchers of birds and fish rested. (Historians note that Captain Cook first arrived in Hawaii during Makahiki, with fortuitous resemblances to Lono and his traditions, but the Englishman had the misfortune to return after Makahiki and the ban on fighting had ended. When conflict broke out, he proved all too mortal.)
There was one down side to Makahiki: It began with a tax collection of a small amount of whatever you grew or made for a living, which went to the chief of the ahupua'a, or district. But four months of playtime seems a pretty good trade-off.
After the advent of Christianity in the islands, most Makahiki traditions (and there are many more than summarized here) were suppressed or slowly forgotten. Now you can find "Makahiki" concerts and festivals extending the fun of fall's Aloha Festivals through the winter, but what's more significant is the revival of some of Makahiki's spiritual traditions, both in the islands and on the mainland.
That phrase appears in many of the Hawaiian Christmas cards I've purchased over the years, and I have to confess for a long time I thought it meant "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year." I was about half right -- or maybe three-quarters.
"Mele Kalikimaka," as fans of Hawaiian music will know, is simply the Hawaiian phonetic rendering of "Merry Christmas." (When you only have 13 letters in your alphabet to play with, and every syllable has to end in a vowel, certain English words morph dramatically -- hence the popularity of mini license plates and engraved jewelry with Hawaiianized names.) Similarly, many mainland Christmas traditions are given distinctly Hawaiian twists: Santa rides a surfboard, palm trees and Norfolk pines bear Christmas lights, slack-key guitar carols fill the airwaves.
But as for "Hau'oli Makahiki Hou," things are a little more complicated. You certainly can translate it as "Happy New Year" (literally, "Happy Year Again"), but you would be missing out on the true meaning of Makahiki to native Hawaiians -- and the chance to celebrate a good deal longer than New Year's Eve.
Ancient Hawaiians divided their calendar into two seasons, the dry summer and the wet winter. Summer, or Kau, was about eight months long. Winter, or Makahiki, started the first new moon after the Pleiades constellation (called Makali'i) rose in the east at sunset, usually in late October. That meant rains were coming, but so were four months of R&R.
Under the auspices of the god Lono, fighting was banned in favor of games and feasts. Natural resources were given time to replenish themselves while the tillers of fields and catchers of birds and fish rested. (Historians note that Captain Cook first arrived in Hawaii during Makahiki, with fortuitous resemblances to Lono and his traditions, but the Englishman had the misfortune to return after Makahiki and the ban on fighting had ended. When conflict broke out, he proved all too mortal.)
There was one down side to Makahiki: It began with a tax collection of a small amount of whatever you grew or made for a living, which went to the chief of the ahupua'a, or district. But four months of playtime seems a pretty good trade-off.
After the advent of Christianity in the islands, most Makahiki traditions (and there are many more than summarized here) were suppressed or slowly forgotten. Now you can find "Makahiki" concerts and festivals extending the fun of fall's Aloha Festivals through the winter, but what's more significant is the revival of some of Makahiki's spiritual traditions, both in the islands and on the mainland.