5 Things to Know About Hawaii's Winter Season, 'Makahiki'

If you plan to travel to Hawaii this winter, you will be visiting during the season Hawaiians call "Makahiki."

Marked by a celebration that combines religious and cultural traditions with a keen understanding of sustainability, the Makahiki season has a lot more to offer than big waves and gushing waterfalls.

It's the Ancient Hawaii New Year, and it's the season of rest and rejuvenation for both the land and the people.

The modern world celebrates the new year on January 1st, but Hawaiian tradition sees the start of the Makahiki Season as the new year, which begins when the constellation Makalii (Pleiades) rises in the east at sundown (usually late November or early December).

This is generally considered the new year because Makahiki marks a time between growing seasons when the dry season ends and the wet, short days of winter begin. In the past, it served as a period of rest and rejuvenation for the land and its people before planting began again in February or March. The land could heal itself, and large projects of farming, fishing, building, and war were all put off until the end of the Makahiki season. For these Hawaiians, the new year began with a season of spending time with family and friends - labor was actually forbidden.

It was a time for the ocean to rest, too, and a very sustainable idea.

Because Makahiki is when the ocean is at its roughest, fishing was also greatly reduced during this time, both as a matter of safety and as a way to echo what was happening on land. Just like the farm fields, the ocean and its habitats also need a break for fish populations to replenish.

It celebrated the return of the god Lono.

A big aspect of Makahiki was its religious component, through which Hawaiians would honor and give thanks to Lono, a deity of peace, agriculture, and healing. Offerings of food and other agricultural products were made on alters, or heiaus, around the islands, in appreciation for the fertility Lono gives the land.

It is celebrated by playing games.

Another component of Makahiki is playing games. There were many ancient Hawaiian games, like ulumaika, where a player must roll a hockey puck-shaped rock in between two sticks stuck in the ground. Forms of arm wrestling, tug-of-war, spear throwing, and foot races were also included. You can see these games for yourself at Molokai's annual Makahiki celebration.

Ironically, it's the busiest time of year for tourism in the modern day.

Big waves were bad for Hawaiians of the past, but they are good for us today. Makahiki is "big wave season" in modern-day Hawaii, and also the primetime part of the year for snowbird visitors. How ironic that a time of rest, when labor was in-fact forbidden, has now become the busiest time of year in the islands.

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