Makahiki training is in full swing at the Honokaa Youth Center. Join in on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons
Traditionally, the Makahiki festival was celebrated in three phases:
The first phase was a time of spiritual cleansing and making hoʻokupu, offerings to the gods. These were offered on the altars of Lono at heiau – temples – in each district around the island. Offerings also were made at the ahupuaʻa, stone altars set up at the boundary lines of each community. The second phase was a time of celebration: of hula dancing, of sports (boxing, wrestling, sliding on sleds, javelin marksmanship, bowling, surfing, canoe races, relays, and swimming), of singing and of feasting.
In the third phase, the waʻa ʻauhau — tax canoe — was loaded with hoʻokupu and taken out to sea where it was set adrift as a gift to Lono.[3] At the end of the Makahiki festival, the chief would go off shore in a canoe. When he came back in he stepped on shore and a group of warriors threw spears at him. He had to deflect or parry the spears to prove his worthiness to continue to rule.
All war was outlawed to allow unimpeded passage of the image of Lono. The festival proceeded in a clockwise circle around the island as the image of Lono (Akua Loa, a long pole with a strip of tapa and other embellishments attached) was carried by the priests. At each ahupuaʻa (each community also is called an ahupuaʻa) the caretakers of that community presented hoʻokupu to the Lono image, a fertility god who caused things to grow and who gave plenty and prosperity to the islands.
MAKAHIKI
See the vision of a Honokaa Makahiki!
Makahiki training is in full swing at the Honokaa Youth Center. Join in on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday afternoons
Traditionally, the Makahiki festival was celebrated in three phases:
The first phase was a time of spiritual cleansing and making hoʻokupu, offerings to the gods. These were offered on the altars of Lono at heiau – temples – in each district around the island. Offerings also were made at the ahupuaʻa, stone altars set up at the boundary lines of each community. The second phase was a time of celebration: of hula dancing, of sports (boxing, wrestling, sliding on sleds, javelin marksmanship, bowling, surfing, canoe races, relays, and swimming), of singing and of feasting.
In the third phase, the waʻa ʻauhau — tax canoe — was loaded with hoʻokupu and taken out to sea where it was set adrift as a gift to Lono.[3] At the end of the Makahiki festival, the chief would go off shore in a canoe. When he came back in he stepped on shore and a group of warriors threw spears at him. He had to deflect or parry the spears to prove his worthiness to continue to rule.
All war was outlawed to allow unimpeded passage of the image of Lono. The festival proceeded in a clockwise circle around the island as the image of Lono (Akua Loa, a long pole with a strip of tapa and other embellishments attached) was carried by the priests. At each ahupuaʻa (each community also is called an ahupuaʻa) the caretakers of that community presented hoʻokupu to the Lono image, a fertility god who caused things to grow and who gave plenty and prosperity to the islands.