Makahiki
MacahikiMakahiki: Hawaii' winter holiday
We had our own Makahiki, our own Christmas vacation, long before Christmas was over. Macahiki can be a bewildering term. This means "year", "new year" and also relates to the month-long period that the new year rings in in the calendar of Hawaii. More and more Makahiki celebrate since the beginning of the restoration of Hawaii' culture in the 1970'.
A few folks are celebrating it on the American Thanksgiving Day weekends. It' a celebration with fun and dinner, and some groups even lift the big Makahiki flag above the celebrations, just like in old time. During antiquity, as the old year came to an end, those who were connected to certain sanctuaries on the west side of each populated island in Hawaii observed the emergence of certain star or constellation.
In Hawaii, they observed Makali'i - the Pleiades - a heap of stars that will appear in the evenings in October. When, just after sundown, the clergy could at last see Makali'i in the east skies, they indicated that the next new moons would start the Makahiki period. It was a period in which wars and most work were forbidden and in which the public were celebrating with play and sport.
But when the Polynesians arrived in Hawaii 1,500-2,000 years ago, the Pleiades ascended about three full day sooner than today. But in practice this makes little contrast to a four-month long event and a rain period of severalweek. In 2016, this year, when the Pleiades' clear skies are used, Makahiki begins on 31 October with the Hilo moons (beginning of the growing lunar crescent).
Makahiki begins with the Hilo moons on December 1st using the Pleiades' first sifting. Makahiki detail varies from isle to isle and county to county. Lono, as the fertile land of the world, has generally dominated the Isles at this time of year. He took a tour around the island's coastline in a counterclockwise direction and the festivities began shortly before his return and ended on his depart.
Throughout Lono's travels, war was banned all over the Isle. The majority of the work was also banned, and on certain dates the hood, the sacred law, was loosened to allow humans to go fishing or farming so that they would not die of starvation. Prior to the advent of Lono-Makua (Father Lono), who leads the Makahiki in a particular county, tax was levied in the shape of donations to Lono-Makua.
In addition, a four- to five-day ceremonial was celebrated. Humans then took a bath in the ocean, heated and wiped themselves by the fire and then put on new clothes in honour of the new year. Lono-Makua's picture was refreshed every year. The Makahiki called this picture "Long God" because it led the whole long way around the isle.
When we arrived in the county, Lono-Makua and Akua Pa'ani, the sport deity, were founded. During the next few weeks of the year, spectators enjoyed sport and festival. Presentations of boxes, javelin casting, sledging and other activities and sport activities were held by the area.
Hospitallers were supplied by the budget of the mayor. The chieftain dressed the picture in a new coat and handed him a rolling tusk. From the southeast, the cloud of the rains were described by the clergy as a sign of Lono's arrival, and the clergy were praying to Lono-Makua for fruitfulness for the lands and for plentiful harvest.
One could feel that with the prosperity of the chieftains also the country and the population flourished. Highland dwellers followed him on his journey and gathered bunches of ferns to dinner. Short-lived gods were bound to a particular county, so that the short god, unlike the long god, would return to his place of birth after he had reached the opposite one.
In the end of the ceremony, the local chaplains said a pray to liberate the country. God the Long was turned face down and taken to the next ward, where the trial began anew. Throughout the entire Makahiki round course, there was probably four month of the Makahiki period, but no single quarter would have been out of commission and incapacitated for the entire fourmonth.
Hoods over work, play and celebration would only have been in force during the period when the deities were in the area. When Lono-Makua finally came back to his area of descent, the high chieftain went swimming by the seaside. At the end of the cleaning, the chieftain and his soldiers brought their boats to the seas.
Then the high chieftain and his soldiers came back to land, where they were hit by a group of soldiers who were supposed to look like an enemy military. When the chieftain leapt out of his boat on land, he was joined by an armrest specialist in the arts of javelin defense. One of the opponent's soldiers cast a javelin on the chieftain and he was hit to the side by the owner.
Then the enemy soldier approached the chieftain with a second javelin, the Shrine. The Makahiki festivities ended with the completion of a net with large mesh of different foodstuffs. A paddle to and fro of an paddle was put out to sea, indicating that the hood had been raised for fish, agriculture and other everyday activities.
The chieftains and clergy resumed their observational work while the ordinary nation was able to resume its norm. Then in the next few clandestine nights, the High Chieftain was cleansed in a string of rites and the rest of the hood was freed from various occupations. and the man who struck the drums took one last Sacramentary dinner of pig meat.
Kamehameheha Schools Hawai'i Cambodia in Kea'au is one of the education facilities that organize a" Aha Makahiki", a peer-to-peer meeting on college campuses where senior students hold classes for the under-school students.