HULA AND CHRISTIANITY

Artist's rendition of the 
Fire Goddess, Pele

Before going further, you need a little background on the hula in relationship to Christianity and the church in Hawai’i.  For centuries, the ancient Hawaiians were polytheistic, as they worshipped many demi-gods and goddesses.  They also lived by a strict kapu (taboo) system, and if violated, were punishable by death.  After King Kamehameha died in 1819, his son King Liholiho Kamehameha II publicly violated a kapu by eating next to his stepmother, with intentions of overturning the kapu system, as it was forbidden for men and women to eat together.  He then denounced the old religion, ordered that the heiaus (temples) be destroyed, and all the idols burned.  Although this caused a lot of controversy and political upheaval, it paved the way for the Christian missionaries.

Contrary to popular belief that the missionaries oppressed the Hawaiian culture, when in fact, everything was in turmoil after the death of King Kamehameha, even before they set foot on the islands.  During the political unrest, a handful of Hawaiians made their way to America to be educated at Yale.  They converted to Christianity and returned to Hawai’i with the first missionaries in 1820.  During the long voyage from Boston to Hawai’i via South America, the missionaries learned to speak Hawaiian fluently from the Native Hawaiians and also developed the Hawaiian alphabet, as a written language was non-existent.  Upon their arrival to the islands, the missionaries were actually preaching in the Hawaiian language.  They also printed the Bible in Hawaiian, and as a result, thousands of Hawaiians converted to Christianity and learned how to read and write in their native tongue.

Although the missionaries didn’t approve of the hula because it was considered a pagan ritual, they had no authority to ban the hula.  It was actually the queen regent, Ka’ahamanu, who converted to Christianity and issued a decree in 1830 banning the hula as immoral.  This didn’t succeed in completely abolishing the hula from the islands, as it continued to be taught and performed in secrecy.  When King David Kalakaua took the throne in 1874, the hula was publicly accepted again.  The king encouraged the performance of the hula kahiko and inspired the advent of the hula ‘auana.  That’s the reason why he was affectionately known as the The Merrie Monarch.  Since 1964 the Annual Merrie Monarch Festival honors his contributions to perpetuating the hula and culture of his people.

King David Kalakaua

Despite hula in public for celebrations and entertainment was standard practice, hula as a form of worship was prohibited in churches throughout Hawai’i.  It wasn’t until 1998 when the Catholic Bishop of Honolulu announced that the Diocese would now allow hula during mass, as long as it was solely expressed as a form of prayer and not entertainment. In present day Hawai’i, the idea of incorporating hula in church still has not been fully embraced by the hula community, regardless that the majority profess the Christian faith.  Many consider that hula in the church is an abomination to the Hawaiian culture, as the church symbolizes the European and American colonialism of the islands that negatively affected the native Hawaiian people.

For more about the history of Christianity in Hawai’i: http://www.angelfire.com/big09a/ReligionHawnHistSovRefs.html