aloha friday

today i give you the history of mele kalikimaka, for a very happy and joyous friday.

The Hawaiian people did not celebrate Christmas prior to the arrival of Captain Cook in 1778. It was, however, the protestant missionaries from New England who first arrived in 1820 who first introduced Christmas to the Hawaiian people.

The missionaries reduced the Hawaiian language to written form, enabling the Hawaiian people to read and write in their own language. Many words for which there were no clear Hawaiian language equivalents were translated phonetically.

Mele Kalikimaka - Merry Christmas. The words "Mele Kalikimaka" are a phonetic translation. When the missionaries and other Westerners first brought the custom of Christmas to the islands the Hawaiians had difficulty pronouncing Merry Christmas and turned it into words that rolled more easily off their tongues.