The Makahiki - or the original Hawaiian Time of Thanksgiving

Back since ancient times, hundreds of years before the Pilgrims even existed, there has been a Hawaiian custom of observing the Makahiki.

Makahiki means New Year (the Hawaiian greeting for Happy New Year is: Hau'oli Makahiki Hou) but it also signifies the period of time when the Hawaiians would put aside wars and work and celebrated the harvest and their blessing with cleansing, feasting, games and much more.

Unlike our own Thanksgiving, the Makahiki was not observed for just one day....it lasted between 4 to 5 months starting sometime between October and November and ending between February and March...it all depended on "The Pleiades", a cluster of stars that appears in the eastern sky close to sunset sometime in late October....the "Time of the Makahiki" lasted as long as you could see The Pleiades in the sky. 

The Makahiki was observed as an homage to their god Lono who was the god of fertility and abundance and though details of the celebration varied slightly from island to island, they all featured Lono as the center of the feasting.

We commonly call the Pleiades the 'Seven Sisters', although the cluster is composed of about 500 hundred stars unseen by the naked eye, and they usually appear in the sky during the harvest season and have been associated with harvest even as far back as during the time of Homer who mentions them in The Illiad written about 750 BC.  According to Robert Burnham's book (Celestial Handbook:An Observer's Guide to the Universe - 1978) they were seen in connection to the agricultural seasons of that time.

Burnham also points out that the name "Pleiades" may be derived from either the Greek word for "to sail", or the word "pleios" meaning "full" or "many".   

It is amazing to me that the early Hawaiians associated the "Pleiades" with full or many (plenty) and that they carried banners, which looked like sails made of kapa (tapa) cloth on poles as they progressed in processions from settlement to settlement all around the island in honor of Lono.

Some people even put the first mention of them earlier than that, but it has not been proved.

By the way, the name of The Pleiades in Japanese is "Subaru".  The Japanese telescope on top of Mauna Kea on the Big Island is appropriately called The Subaru.

A traditional Hawaiian Makahiki Blessing:

As it has been through time, may this season of Makahiki be a time of new growth and rejuvenation for you physically, emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually.

To learn more about Makahiki, please click on the following links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makahiki

http://www.hawaii.gov/hidocs/makahiki.html

http://www.moolelo.com/ancient-celebration.html

http://www.kaahelehawaii.com/pages/culture_makahiki.htm

Hau`oli Lâ Ho`omaika`i - Happy Thanksgiving to All!