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SPECTRUM
Sunday, December 19, 2010
By Gary A Warner ost every store in North America seems to be playing the Bing Crosby chestnut “White Christmas” this time of year. But in Hawaii, where the only thing white at Christmas is the sand on Waikiki, you’re more likely to hear another Crosby classic, with these lyrics: Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day That’s the island greeting that we send to you from the land where palm trees sway Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way to say Merry Christmas to you. Mele Kalikimaka captures the spirit of Christmas in the islands-a warm, playful attempt by people on a Pacific Island to act out an Americanized holiday filled with symbols drawn from a snow-flecked Northern European tradition. There’s an old joke that there are two seasons in Hawaii-summer and Christmas Day. But like much of the rest of the world, Hawaii goes Happy Holidays crazy as soon as the last Halloween pumpkins go in the compost bin. The end of the year is one of my favorite times to travel to Hawaii. Airfares are low in early December, and it’s time for the big-wave surf contests on the North Shore of Oahu and on Maui. This year I traveled to the Big Island and Oahu. I was hit with the Christmas spirit, island-style, the first morning in Hilo. I stopped in for some macadamia nut flapjacks at Ken’s House of Pancakes and was greeted by waitress Wilma Kuamoo, decked out in a Santa hat, with fake pine needles and sleigh bells tied to her shoes. “Christmas is a fun time for family,” Kuamoo said. “I’m 65, but I can’t retire. I have 13 grandchildren. Who would there be to buy them all presents?” Hawaiians like Kuamoo have taken Christmas and given it a twist and a wink. It starts with the Hawaiian version of the traditional greeting. Hawaiians say “Mele Kalikimaka,” a phonetic approximation of the “Merry Christmas” greeting given by early 18th-century Christian explorers and missionaries Then there’s the version of Santa and Mrs. Claus on display in downtown Honolulu. Santa seemingly squints in the sun, throwing a Hawaiian thumb-andpinky “hang loose” shaka sign, his white-furtrimmed red shirt open wide to reveal a big tanned tummy. The statue of a tropical St. Nick sits next to a huge “Tutu Mele”-”Merry Granny,” as Mrs Claus is called-who has hiked up her skirt to catch a cool trade wind. In downtown Honolulu, King Kamehameha’s hand reaches out, seemingly pointing toward a big SEASONS GREETINGS sign on a building nearby. Colored lights glow from the banyan and monkey pod trees. On Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki, every other Aloha shirt or muu-muu has the traditional, tropical red and white design. What looks like a Christmas tree from afar at the Kahala Mall is actually a cone-shaped iron stand with rings for dozens of tropical, potted red poinsettias. Other holiday standards get a mele makeover. A local version of “The Night Before Christmas” replaces Santa’s call
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A 55-foot Christmas tree reaches near the towering palms as it stands on South King Street in downtown Honolulu. of “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night’” with “Merry Christmas, da kine, aloha Hawaii!” There’s a Hawaiian take on “The Twelve Days of Christmas” that turns all the oddball gifts to equally strange Hawaiian things, topped by changing the “partridge in a pear tree” to a “myna bird in a papaya tree.” In some storybooks, Santa arrives by outrigger canoe, or his sleigh is pulled by dolphins instead of reindeer. There are a few places that Hawaiians and visi-
tors go to approximate Christmas on the mainland. The Lodge at Koele up in the pine trees of Lanai has the feeling of a modern version of the hotel in “Holiday Inn.” Kula on the slopes of Haleakala on Maui is one place where a roaring fire isn’t just an invitation to sweat. The Big Island gets snow, on the distant peaks of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. It’s possible to ski the grainy snow on the high-altitude slopes if you time your trip just right. One of my favorite holiday sights is the cabins
at a military recreation center within Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. It can get down to the 50s on many December nights, one of the reasons the accommodations are booked well in advance each holiday and decked with Christmas lights. I’d rather go with the flow down at the beach. Across most of the islands, traditional Christmas weather is nowhere to be felt. It’s higher than 80 degrees during the day. No need to roast chestnuts on an open fire-just set them out on some tinfoil on a
A Christmas tree, built of poinsettias, stands at the Kahala Mall.
By Gary A Warner
he modern Hawaiian Christmas is a mix of traditions brought by 18th century explorers and missionaries, combined with the winter solstice celebration of the ancient Hawaiians. Hawaiians observed Makahiki, a four-month celebration around the winter solstice that was a time to thank the gods for the food drawn from the land and sea. At the heart of the festival was the god Lono, who represented fertility and growth. His image in the form of a tiki was carried throughout the islands. During Makahiki, it was forbidden for warriors of rival clans to go to sea in war canoes. This ensured that the time could be spent in peaceful celebrations and feasts featuring pig and fish. The festival also marked the beginning of the new year, a time when Hawaiians say “Hauoli Makahiki Hou”-roughly “happy new year to you.” The Western version of the holidays came to Hawaii on Dec 25, 1786. The British ship Queen Charlotte was anchored off present-day Waimea, on the west side Kauai. This was eight years after Capt James Cook had come into Waimea Bay and “discovered” what he would call the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sandwich, the Lord of the Admiralty. According to the accounts of the Queen Charlotte’s captain, George Dixon, a search party was sent ashore. The group caught a wild pig, which was roasted by the ship’s cooks. Sailors mixed their traditional rum ration with the milk of coconuts taken from the island in what may be the first recorded pina colada in history. In a celebration that echoed the American Thanksgiving, British officers later extended the season’s greetings to the natives by sending “trifles” ashore for women and children on Kauai. Soon after, a local chieftain sent canoes out to the British with pigs and vegetables, the first recorded Christmas gift swap in Hawaii. The missionaries who arrived in 1820 had a more restrained view of Christmas and did not organize active celebrations for several years. But as other branches of Protestant evangelists, along with Catholic priests, arrived in the islands, the various traditions of Christmas became known. Traders and sailors who arrived in the missionaries’ wake were more likely to celebrate the holiday. By 1837, a Honolulu newspaper published salutations of “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year.” In 1856, King Kamehameha IV moved the official national day of Thanksgiving to Dec 25, more than coincidentally coinciding with Christmas. A large Christmas party was held on the royal grounds in 1858, including what is believed to be the first Christmas tree in the islands. Christmas became an official Hawaiian holiday in 1862. Historical accounts said the occasion was marked by the firing of cannons and flaming tar poured down the sides of Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu to recreate the image of a volcano. — MCT
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If you go lanning ahead: Christmas decorations are on display throughout Hawaii, though most of the major events have already been held. If you are planning on a trip in 2011, check with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau for the dates of events such as the Banyan Tree Lighting in Lahaina, Maui; the Kailua-Kona Christmas Parade on the Big Island; and the Hanapepe Christmas Festival on
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chair at the beach. But the underpinnings of the holiday are universal, whatever the thermometer reads. Sunny Garcia, the legendary Oahu surfer who has split time in recent years between the islands and Orange County, told me years ago that it was perfect timing that the holidays came just at the height of the North Shore surf season. “Christmas is a special time because after a year of traveling around the world, it’s when I get to come home.”
Kauai. There are dozens of other events featuring a range of interests: music festivals, craft fairs, tree lightings, parades and carnivals. The Honolulu lights festival: The event runs through the end of the year. Highlights include a 50-foot Christmas tree in front of Honolulu Hale, the city hall. The Hawaii-themed Santa and Mrs Claus are nearby. The trees in the downtown area are wrapped in
A surfing Santa ornament hangs on the Christmas tree in the dining room of the Kilauea Lodge in Volcano Village.
lights. 530 S King St. Hotel decorations: The major resorts bring out holiday finery. The outer island resorts do a nice job, but the best displays are in Honolulu. The decorations at the Moana Surfrider (2365 Kalakaua Ave), Royal Hawaiian (2259 Kalakaua Ave) and Kahala (5000 Kahala Ave) are my favorites. — MCT
Season’s greetings lights up behind the King Kamehameha I statue on the Aliiolani Hale.