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Fascinating! Mahalo HbH. I have great respect for the culture and customs of the Kanaka Maoli people, and this is a very interesting look at a part I knew little about. Since a lot of people say they rarely open links here, I'll post a taste of that article.
Quote:
Ancient Hawaiian celebration of Makahiki tied to the stars
By Wayne Smith
February 2000
On November 18, for the second year in a row, a group of Maui Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiians) gathered in darkness long before dawn on the rim of Haleakala. They sat in the stillness of the night on a lava-strewn overlook peering into the heavens as their ancestors' royal counselors, holy men, wisdom keepers, and the master astronomer of the island did in times past.
As they waited in the numbing cold of the peak under the thin crescent sliver of the first new moon of the winter months, the group, all of Hawaiian ancestry, were seeking to bond with their cultural tradition through observing a sacred ancient ceremony.
The ceremony of Ka Ho'okupu, He Makana Kela (Bringing the Gift) was limited to Native Hawaiians in accordance with the Native American Religious Freedom Act. The now-annual gathering is sponsored by Hui `Ai Pohaku, (Keepers of the Culture) a group dedicated to preserving and protecting the cultural and spiritual essence of the Kanaka Maoli. It is an effort by elders in the host-culture community to expose its members to the core of their ancient cultural and spiritual customs and traditions.
According to Charles "Uncle Charlie" Kauluwehi Maxwell, Sr., a kapuna (revered elder) in the Kanaka Maoli community and Native Hawaiian cultural specialist, "the culture is alive and well, but the Kanaka Maoli are still seeking to renew and forge new links to their ancient past."
Fascinating! Mahalo HbH. I have great respect for the culture and customs of the Kanaka Maoli people, and this is a very interesting look at a part I knew little about. Since a lot of people say they rarely open links here, I'll post a taste of that article.
A`ole pilikia, no biggie. Yes it is very interesting. It also kind of supports that the ancestral Kanaka Maoli were not savages that the western history books say they are. In fact the more I learn of the culture and history, the more I learn they were an advanced civilization in different ways, unlike others. Aloha A hui hou.
A`ole pilikia, no biggie. Yes it is very interesting. It also kind of supports that the ancestral Kanaka Maoli were not savages that the western history books say they are. In fact the more I learn of the culture and history, the more I learn they were an advanced civilization in different ways, unlike others. Aloha A hui hou.
I think they were more sophisticated than may have been realized before, but that business of getting your head bashed in with a big club for such violations of tabu as letting your shadow touch a chief, or eating with your wife is not easy to overlook.
The most charming part of their origin mythology, to me, is that they believed their people originally came from the Pleides. I wonder what they think of the annual Pleides meteor shower? New people moving into the nabe?
I think they were more sophisticated than may have been realized before, but that business of getting your head bashed in with a big club for such violations of tabu as letting your shadow touch a chief, or eating with your wife is not easy to overlook.
The most charming part of their origin mythology, to me, is that they believed their people originally came from the Pleides. I wonder what they think of the annual Pleides meteor shower? New people moving into the nabe?
But thats no different then killing or torturing people for some sins which the puritians did enforce, or the burning of witches to the stake or drowning or the hanging of african americans by race haters. Uhmmm I take the club to the head please! Quick, humane death.
the Pleides myth isnt limited to the polynesian kanakas. All over the world there is myth about it. My tribe the Blackfoot has legend that is told by other tribes as well. In the story, the Pleiades are orphans ("Lost Boys") that were not cared for by the people, so they became stars. Sun Man is angered by the mistreatment of the children and punishes the people with a drought, causing the buffalo to disappear, until the dogs, the only friends of the orphans, intercede on behalf of the people. Because the buffalo are not available while the Lost Boys are in the skies, the cosmical setting of the Pleaides was an assembly signal for Blackfoot hunter to travel to their hunting grounds to conduct the large-scale hunts, culminating in slaughters at buffalo jumps, that characterized their culture.
Location: SF Bay Area /on the banks of Waikaea Canal
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Can you still buy Moon Cakes in Honolulu Chinatown this time of year?
...I know Moon Cakes went to the graves with the last original old pake men on Kauai!
Can you still buy Moon Cakes in Honolulu Chinatown this time of year?
Aren't mooncakes made for the autumn festival? September, I think.
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Makahiki
