Christmas inHawaii is a major annual celebration, as in most of theWestern world.
This festival was introduced to Hawaii with the arrival of Protestant missionaries, and is believed to have started after 1820.[1][2] Most of the traditions they currently celebrate come from the missionaries.[3][4] Before theHawaiians celebrated the Christmas people know today, they had a festival namedMakahiki which lasted around four months and in which all wars were forbidden. The season still had the essence of "peace and goodwill to all men", which is another thing people tend to associate with Christmas.[1]
The first recorded Christmas in Hawaii was in 1786, when thecaptain of merchant ship theQueen Charlotte,George Dixon, was docked on the Hawaiian island ofKauai. Dixon and his crew celebrated a large Christmas dinner that included a whole roast pig.[1]
KingKamehameha IV andQueen Emma of Hawaii officially celebrated Christmas in 1856 as a day of Thanksgiving. On Christmas Eve of 1858Mary Dominis threw a party atWashington Place featuring the first instance of a Christmas tree and Santa Claus in Hawaii. King Kamehameha IV declared it an official holiday in 1862.[5][6]
The annual Honolulu City Lights ceremony features a 50-footNorfolk pine Christmas tree decorated with bright lights and elaborate decorations. There is also live entertainment.[1] Another annual celebration is theFestival of Lights held during December inLihue, Kauai.
The traditions onChristmas day are similar to other places; a large meal is eaten and then, as the beach is often nearby in Hawaii, surfing or swimming often takes place in the waters,[7] and musical groups with guitars and ukuleles and dancinghula entertain the crowds on the beach.Santa hats are worn and the traditional Santa's sleigh and reindeer are replaced by anoutrigger canoe pulled by dolphins.[7] The different cultures and ethnic groups that have settled in the islands celebrate the Christmas traditions of Hawaii in their own unique ways, which may be religious or plainly secular. EvenSanta Claus (Hawaiian: Kanakaloka) himself is not wearing his corporate red and white suit, but has swapped it for flowery Hawaiian clothes.[7]
Christmaswreaths are made from thepoinsettia plant.[3]
The phrase "Mele Kalikimaka" can be translated from Hawaiian to mean "Merry Christmas".[8] It is also a Hawaiian themed Christmas song composed byRobert Alex Anderson in 1949. The phrase is borrowed directly from English, but, since Hawaiian has a differentphonological system (in particular, Hawaiian does not possess the/r/ or/s/ of English, nor does it have thephonotactic constraints to allow consonants at the end of a syllable), "Merry Christmas" becomes "Mele Kalikimaka".[9]
There is also a more modern take on this song, called "Melekalikimaka" by rock bandThe Beach Boys from the compilation albumUltimate Christmas.[10]
