Traditional Hawaiians would greet people by pressing their foreheads together and breathing through their noses. Breathing through your nose is considered the purest way to take a breath. Riley’s grandpa would greet him and his siblings and cousins with this traditional greeting. He would bend down and place his forehead against each of their foreheads then take one deep breath through his nose and exhale. It was an intimate way of greeting people to show that you cared for the person and respected him or her beyond words.
In addition, kids were to greet elders or other parents who were outside their family as Uncle or Auntie instead of Mr. or Mrs. It was very disrespectful to call someone by the title of Mr. or Mrs. Riley, for example, would walk into a cookie shop and greet the shop owner as Auntie May, even though she had no family relationship to him.
The use of Auntie and Uncle to address elders most likely was used to represent that all Hawaiians are family, despite of what blood you have. It makes sense with Hawaiian culture to treat everyone who lived on the islands as family because the islands collectively represented one giant family.
Author Archives: Wilson Knapp
Wave Call
The Wave Call is a beach ritual that many of Connor and his friends would perform when they were surfing at the beach. The purpose of the Wave Call would be to summon a series of big waves. The Wave Call involved everyone in the group who was surfing, dive under water into a handstand position and kick their legs back and forth above the water. Before they came up to the surface, they would grab sand from the ocean floor. As they took their breath on the surface, they would throw the sand they picked up toward the incoming waves. The closer they were to performing the Wave Call simultaneously, the more likely a series of big waves would come. In addition, the more synchronized their wave call was, the bigger the waves would be in the set. If a series of big waves did not come after the Wave Call, they would blame someone for not performing the Wave Call correctly and try it again. Eventually, the Wave Call would always have a success because sets always come and go. Worst case scenario, if no big waves would come, it was a way to waste time as they waiting for bigger waves.
Drip, Drip, Drip
Cody and his family used to go on annual camping trips to the Sierra Nevadas. Usually at night they would tell stories, and one night in particular, Cody’s dad told him this ghost story:
There was a couple driving back from a late night movie listening to the radio. On the way home, their car began to run out of gas. They were a few miles away from the nearest gas station when the car eventually stopped. As the couple sat in the car contemplating what to do, the radio spokesman announced that there was a murderer on the loose in their county. It was not safe to walk around outside. The boyfriend did not want to wait in his car until morning, so he told his girl that he was going to walk to the nearest gas station to get gas. He said he would be back within an hour or so. As much as the girlfriend tried to plead to him not to go, he refused to listen to her warnings. Once the boyfriend got out of the car and began to walk, the girl locked the car doors.
More than a couple hours went by, and the boyfriend had no returned. The girl grew more scared by the minute. As the minutes ticked away, she began to hear a dripping sound on the roof of the car. Drip. Drip. Drip. She had no idea what could be making the noise, but she was too frightened to get out of the car and look. The dripping continued: drip, drip, drip. Growing more and more scared, the girl curled up underneath the glove compartment in order to make it look like no one was sitting in the car. Another hour went by, as she constantly heard the sound drip, drip, drip. As uncomfortable as it was scrunched up under the glove box and as scared as she was, she eventually fell asleep.
When she woke up in the morning, she could barely see out the car. It appeared to be covered in mud. She could make out the vague flashing of red and blue lights outside. Realizing it was the police, she opened up the car. One of the officers grabbed her the second she stepped out, and he put her into the cop car and immediately drove away. He told the girl not to look back as they were driving away from her boyfriend’s car. She couldn’t understand what was happening and why she was being driven away or where her boyfriend was. She couldn’t help but to look back. What she saw took the color right from her skin. The car was not covered in mud after all. It was covered in blood. Hanging from the tree above the car was her boyfriend with his feet cut off. The blood was slowly dripping onto the car, going drip, drip, drip.
Night Marchers
Night Marchers are ancient Hawaiian warrior ghosts. They generally march around sunset or just before sunrise, but can march any time day or night. They were associated with the sound of drumming and the carrying of torches. They are known to walk the mountains and the beaches on all the islands of Hawaii. On each island, there are certain trails that the Night Marchers are most likely to be seen on. If you ever see them, you are supposed to lie down and don’t look at them. The reason you don’t want the Night Marchers to see you is because they will kill you if they do. Lying down is supposed to make you harder to see, and not looking at them is supposed to make them likely to look over at you. Night Marchers, however, would not harm you if one of the Night Marchers is a relative of yours.
Riley’s father and grandpa would tell him and his siblings and cousins about the Night Marchers whenever they went camping. Riley says that he has never seen any or hear any night marchers, but his grandpa swears that he has both heard the drums of the night watchers and saw their torches.
Whether or not the Night Marchers exist, they seem to represent to me the Hawaiian respect for the indigenous islanders. The Hawaiian warriors who died on the islands were fighting to protect their land from foreigners. The legend says that Night Marchers would not harm someone who saw them if one of their relatives was in the Night Marcher ranks. This seems to me to show that the people indigenous to Hawaii were respected, and everyone else who had come to the islands and were foreigners were still not welcome because the Night Marchers would still want vengeance on them.
Yellow Light Touch the Roof
Whenever Andy used to drive in the car with his sister, his sister used to kiss her hand and touch the roof of her car when she went through a yellow light. By touching the roof of her car, it would guarantee safety as she went through the intersection. Andy and his family always touch the roof of their car when they go through yellow lights. However, one time specifically, Andy’s sister went through an intersection at a yellow light and did not touch the roof of her car. That specific time she did not touch the roof of her car, she got into a car accident. Since that day, Andy’s sister and her whole family always kiss their hand and touch the roof of their car when they drive through a yellow light at an intersection. They now consider it very bad luck to not kiss your hand and touch the roof of your car when going through a yellow light.