Aloha Friday: Henry Opukaha'ia

Aloha, it's Friday! Today I want to tell you about Henry Opukaha'ia also known as Henry Obookia.  In case you're wondering how to say his last name, it's pronounced this way: oh-poo-kuh-huh-ee-ah)

Henry was born on the Big Island of Hawai'i, on the opposite side from our last story, in the 1790s. When he was about 10 years old, there was a war on the island. During this war, Henry's mother and father were killed in front of him. He strapped his baby brother to his back and escaped. But his brother was killed by another soldier's spear. Henry was then put under the care (some records say he was taken prisoner) of the soldier who killed his parents. Talk about an uncomfortable situation.

Well, that didn't last long because Henry discovered he had an uncle who was kahuna (priest/leader) at a nearby heiau (temple) and he was sent to live with him. On a visit to an aunt in a neighboring village, he witnessed said aunt's death when she was thrown off a cliff by a soldier for violating a kapu law. He escaped the solider and returned to his uncle's home. He says in his  memoir that that's when he began to dream of living somewhere else.

When he was 16, he boarded a merchant ship and spent the next few years sailing the Pacific. While onboard, he became friends with a Christian sailor, Russel Hubbard who taught Henry to read and write using the Bible.

In 1809, the ship landed in New York and was sold. Henry went to live with the Captain of the ship and continued to learn English. Now that he could read and write, he began to explore religion.

He said, "Hawai'i gods. They wood-burn. Me go home, put 'em in fire, burn 'em up. They no see, no hear, no anything. On a more profound note he added, We make them (idols). Our God-he make us."

In 1814, after traveling throughout Connecticut farming and studying, he began speaking publicly and worked on translating the Bible into Hawaiian. By 1815 he'd finished writing his book, "Memoirs of Henry Obookiah." And in 1817, he was among Hawaiian and American students training as missionaries to spread the gospel around the world and back home in Hawaii. One account of his life says that from the time Henry discovered Christianity he had a deep desire to take the truth back to his homeland so they could be liberated from kapu.

Unfortunately Henry died of typhus in 1818 but his life and his faith inspired 14 missionaries to take the gospel to Hawaii. His work at translating the Bible into Hawaiian was a terrific aid in printing primers and Bible stories in Hawiian.

The connection to last week's story? Those 14 missionaries sailed aboard the Thaddeus and landed on the Big Island in March of 1820, just six months after Kamehameha II abolished the kapu system.

Ancient Religion Abolished During Dinner

Aloha, it's Friday! Time for some Hawai'i history!

Shortly before the first Christian missionaries ever set foot on Hawai'i, the Hawaiian monarchy abolished its ancient religion in a bloody, historical battle.

Hawaiian religion is based on a system called "kapu" which means "forbidden." It was comprised of various laws and most violations were punished only by death. Hawaiians believed in stringent enforcement for even a single violation was needed because the gods would punish the whole community with natural disasters if they didn't strictly punish the violator. One of the kapu laws was that men and women could not eat together. In fact, it was kapu for women to eat bananas and coconuts just as men were forbidden to eat certain fish. The kapu system originated some time around 1300 and was isntituted by the ali'i. Ali'i means chiefly class. So in other words, the royalty of Hawai'i convinced the rest of the Hawaiians that they were sacred and that everyone had to follow the laws they instituted or the entire people would be punished by the gods. Gee, how many times have we heard that story?

King Kamehameha I (also known as Kamehameha the Great) conquered the islands and formed the Hawaiian nation in 1810. Some believe that he was the promised king, the one whose birth would be announced by a comet. (sound familiar?) History tells us that Halley's comet was visible in Hawai'i in 1758 and Hawaiian history says Kamehameha was born in November of that year. Although, some historians say he was born some twenty years earlier. But that's not the point. The point is, the Hawaiian people thought this was the great king who was going to unify the islands (he did) and establish a kindgom (he did), and so they had much respect for him and esteemed him greatly. That is why no one even though to suggest ending the kapu system while he was alive.

Captain Cook had arrived on the Big Island in 1778 unaware of the kapu laws and accidently violated many of them. When the island was not devastated by tsnumi, earthquake or other natural disaster, many Hawaiians figured out that the gods were not enforcing the kapu laws. Some historians even suggest that the Hawaiian people started to doubt the gods existed at all.  Fast forward some forty years....

In 1819, Kamehameha the Great died and very shortly after that, his favorite wife Ka'ahumanu and her "sister-wife" Keopuolani convinced King Kamehameha II (son of the Great and Keopuolani) to abolish kapu. Their suggestion was for him to eat publicly with them. And he did. So the message was sent throughout the land that kapu was hereby abolished. Not long after this famous dinner, Kamehameha II had the heiaus (temples) and idols demolished.

But, as with anything, there were those who were upset about the end of kapu. Kekuaokalani who was Kamehameha II's cousin and heir to the throne should Kamehameha die, objected strongly to the abolition. His cohorts encouraged himt o "seek the throne" or in other words, have the king assasinated.Though he refused to order an assasination, he started a battle.

The battle occured near Kailua-Kona when Kamehameha II's forces went to intercept Kekuao's forces. In battle, Kekuao was wounded. His wife ran out and fell at his side, begging for their lives to be spared. Instead, Kamehameha's forces executed both of them and kapu also died that day.

About four months later, the first Christian missionaries landed on Hawai'i. Now if that isn't a God-thing, I don't know what is.  I'll tell you more about these first missionaries next Friday.

Sadly, this historic site is in the middle of a resort area as you can tell from the photo.

Aloha Friday: Found the Famous Santa Photo!

Aloooooooooooha! It's Friday!

We were camping last Friday so I didn't post anything, but look what I found! The picture of Adam with Santa from my June 29 post.