Christmas in Hawaii

Papadogianni Constantina Γ΄2 School Year: 2013 - 2014

History

• The festival was introduced to Hawaii with the arrival of Protestant missionaries, and is believed to have started after 1820. Most of the traditions they currently celebrate have come from the missionaries. Before the Hawaiians celebrated the Christmas people know today, they had a festival named Makahiki 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.The first recorded Christmas in Hawaii was in 1786, when the captain of merchant ship the Queen Charlotte, George Dixon, was docked on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. Dixon and his crew celebrated a large Christmas dinner which included a whole roast pig.

Celebrations today• The annual Honolulu City Lights ceremony features a 50-foot Norfolk pine Christmas

tree decorated with bright lights and elaborate decorations. There is also live entertainment. The traditions on Christmas 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, and musical groups with guitars and ukuleles and dancing hula entertain the crowds on the beach. Santa hats are worn and the traditional Santa's sleigh and reindeer are replaced by an outrigger canoe pulled by dolphins. 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. Even Santa Claus (Hawaiian: Kanakaloka) himself is not wearing his corporate red and white suit, but has swapped it for flowery Hawaiian clothes.

• Christmas wreaths are made from the poinsettia plant.

Mele Kalikimaka

• The phrase “Mele Kalikimaka” can be translated from Hawaiian to mean "Merry Christmas". It is also a Hawaiian themed Christmas song composed by Robert Alex Anderson in 1949. The phrase is borrowed directly from English, but, since Hawaiian has a different phonological system (in particular, Hawaiian does not possess the /r/ or /s/ of English, nor does it have the phonotactic constraints to allow consonants at the end of a syllable), "Merry Christmas" becomes "Mele Kalikimaka".

Hawaiian Snowballs

INGREDIENTS

•1 cup salted, roasted macadamia nuts, finely chopped•2/3 cup finely chopped dried pineapple•1/4 recipe Basic Sugar-Cookie Dough Basic Sugar-Cookie Dough•1/4 cup confectioners' sugar, for dusting

DIRECTIONS

1.STEP 12.Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with racks on upper and lower thirds. On a clean work surface, toss nuts with dried fruit. Sprinkle over dough; knead until just blended.3.STEP 24.Form into 1-inch balls; place 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake cookies in upper and lower thirds of oven, switching positions of sheets halfway through, until edges are barely golden, about 15 minutes. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Dust with sugar.

Christmas in Hawaii!!!!

Bibliography

Wikipedia