Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 26, Number 11, 1 Nowemapa 2009 — Halloween is no longer scary [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Halloween is no longer scary

Halloween has heeome a commercial success. It's a dress-up, candybegging evening event for children. And, today, adults dress up at work and parade between nightspots through the evening. Hawaiians of yesteryear didn't wait for a specific day to share scary stories. Adults passed scary tales over the

"coconut wireless" with great speed all year long ! As a youngster, I remember scary tales were whispered between adults and were not intended for children to hear. Classmates told stories at school. One story, however, was told to me as an adult. The story was about a man who had worked under great stress all day. After work, he decided to wind down from the day's drama with a walk along the heaeh before returning to his room. He wanted to savor his conquest at work. The stressful assignment got done, done well and on time. He strolled along his favorite heaeh enjoying the warm sand under his bare feet. The quiet and the shoreline breezes were niee. The tide was low.

He returned to his car parked

above the heaeh as the sun began to drop low on the horizon. He sat facing the west, enjoying the hnal moments of sunset. As the sun disappeared, he was aware of torches on the heaeh a distance away to his right. At first, he thought the torches belonged to fishermen. But he soon realized the lights were not moving into the water. As the torches drew closer, he realized it was a group walking on the heaeh above the water line. The group was still a distance away, but now, he was very curious and decided to watch. Then, he heard the faint sounds of a flute. What was this? The torches drew closer still. The man saw it was a sizable group of men, walking in single file, dressed in malo. Some carried torches; some carried implements. The men were tall, lean and strongly built. They looked and walked straight ahead as

they moved closer. The man in the car could make out body features in the torchlight but could not see any faces. He sat perfectly still, as it began to dawn on him. He was watching "night marchers." He sat motionless until long after the marchers had passed and the flute sounds had grown faint. He drove quickly home and, in absolute terror, revealed the story to his roommates. He had experienced what Hawaiians eall, huaka'i pō. Hawaiians believe family ties remain intact with those who are in the afterworld. And, that their spirits ean return to familiar places and that they look as they did in life. Hawaiians believe these processions of spirits eome on the sacred nights of Kū, Lono, Kāne or Kanaloa to visit sacred places. They may be seen by

day if they eome to wel-

the soul of a dying relative and to take him into world of the 'aumākua. It is said that meeting a procession of huaka'i pō ean be dangerous. If, 'oi'o ("Let himhe pierced") is the cry of the leader, only an 'aumākua ean protect the viewer. And, if no relative or 'aumākua is among the marchers to protect the viewer, a ghostly spearman will strike the viewer dead. There is only one thing to do to save yourself if no relative is among the marchers. In the time of our ancestors, the recommendation was to remove all clothing, lie face up and pretend to sleep. That wouldn't work today, because you could be arrested for indecent exposure, so now, you must decide whieh fate is worse. Boo! ■

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mo'olelohi!"^

By Claire Ku'uleilani Hughes, Dr. PH„ R.D.

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