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Hawaiian LegendsThe and Hawaii ... Travel Ezine, dated 03/12/01, by Lisa Weber
++++ In this Issue ++++ 01. Title Article - Hawaiian Legends 02. Travels deals - oahu, travelzoo, aadvantage miles to kauai 03. Hawaiian Word - makamae 04. Hawaiian article - Waimea Falls Park 05. Website - Hawaii Forest and Trail 01. --- Hawaiian Legends --- One of the things that makes Hawaii so unique is the rich culture and spiritual background. Besides the ancient Hawaiian belief in multiple Gods and Godesses, there were also the menehune or "little people" the "night marchers" and the "smothering ghost". I watched a show about Hawaiian History on the history channel 3 weeks ago that gave me chicken skin (goosebumps). The story that had the most effect on me was of the supernatural happenings at Waimea Falls Park, a large park on Oahu that features a cliff diving show into a natural pool flanked by a large waterfall. One visitor, upon arriving home, found that one of their pictures showed two divers on their way to the water, both curled up in balls while flipping end over end. A shadow in the cliff's face, however, clearly showed a third diver, completely extended on the way to the water. This picture is now displayed at the park's visitor center. I am getting chicken skin just writing about it. The most famous stories center around the Godess Pele. She is a Hawaiian deity that many people still believe in and pray or allude to. Pele is the Godess of fire, and currently makes her home on the Big Island. She lives on Kilauea and sends her lava down the slopes, sometimes claiming old land, sometimes creating new land. Pele often appears as an old woman, and if you see her, you should be nice to her. There are many legends about her sparing the home of someone who was nice to her. The most famous legend about Pele, is Pele's curse - which says visitors should not take lava or any form of it off of the island. If you do, you could be subjected to bad luck until you return it. Some say this curse is actually a story started by a bus driver to make people clean their shoes carefully after visiting the black sand beach (black sand is lava ground up by the ocean waves or lava cinder deposited in a certain place by the water) so it didn't take as long to clean the bus. However, while I worked in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, I saw an average of 15 boxes of lava rock mailed back a day. These packages often included notes for the park rangers to offer their apologies to Pele because the former visitors had had bad luck. Once, I even saw a pair of shoes mailed back, because the owner thought the soles might contain lava particles. Don't believe it? http://www.delphi.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=ab-hawaii&msg=1015.1 This thread at About.com was started by a woman who does (reply number 2 is from me) Want to know more? Here's some links: http://www.europa.com/edge/mene.html About the Menehune http://www.moolelo.com/menehune.html Menehune Legend http://www.chicken-skin.com/ A page about a book dedicated to spooky Hawaiian tales. (Obake means spirit or ghost in Japanese) Don't miss the picture from a visitor of Pele seen rising in a column of smoke and fire from the volcano http://www.chicken-skin.com/FrameIGBigPele.html she appears to be holding a child, possibly her younger sister Hi'iaka. http://www.writerssfl.com/library/MarkBillson_Pele.html A very scary, apparantly real story of the death of a man's friend possibly due to his messing around with a Hawaiian burial site. (kahili is a feathered stand for royalty) (kapu means forbidden) http://www.bishop.hawaii.org/bishop/campus/kahilirm.html kahili picture http://www2.lapietra.edu/web/28/Kilauea/npele.html http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Studios/2450/legends.html a little more about Pele http://www.castleofspirits.com/pali.html one persons story of night marchers on Oahu http://www.nightmarchers.com/ Night Marchers movie http://www.honolulu.about.com/citiestowns/alaskahawaii/honolulu/library/hawaii/aa10297h.htm?pid=2767&cob=home about the night marchers ---Internet Travel Deals Watch--- ** check the web sites for details and restrictions --------------------------------------------- http://www.allabouthawaii.com/specialoffer.html special travel offers from allabouthawaii.com from certain starting cities --------------------------------------------- http://dir.travelzoo.com/Vacations.asp?intCategory=52 Travelzoo Hawaii offers --------------------------------------------- http://www.aston-hotels.com/call_propertydisplay.cfm?propertygroupid=25564&operatingcompanyid=5 Honolulu Prince low prices --------------------------------------------- http://leisure.travelocity.com/RealDeals/Details/0,2941,TRAVELOCITY_VAC_637,00.html?HPTRACK=vac_txt 10,000 Aadvantage bonus miles for a Kauai vacation on Travelocity --------------------------------------------- ---Hawaiian Word of the Week--- makamae - (mah kah my) - precious, of great value, darling 04. ---Hawaiian Article/Information Watch--- http://hawaii.epinions.com/trvl-review-4ABC-5A9881F-39396FC4-prod5 Waimea Falls Park - a visitor's article about the Park with the spooky picture mentioned above. 05. --- Hawaiian Website Watch --- http://www.hawaii-forest.com/ Ecotours on the Big Island, website features include easy to understand volcanic geology info, and monthly articles about Big Island landscapes. Have a story or a question you'd like to share? E-mail me at ezine@andhawaii.com . Until next week, Lisa. http://www.andhawaii.com |
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