Thanksgiving Dinner warms your heart, the glowing family sitting around the table with mom and dad, grandma and all the kids. Dad carving the turkey, Mom passing the gravy.
Nice in our cozy world but not so in old Hawaii.
For a thousand years in Kona and all the islands, men and women could not eat together and women could not eat certain foods. It was kapu.
No family dinners in Hawaii.
If grandma got caught eating a banana, no more grandma. She would be dragged away and a large rock would land on her head. If auntie or sistah ventured near the men’s table they’d be quickly dropped off a cliff. Dinner was always “to go.”
A picnic was no picnic for Hawaiian ladies.
Eating was always “no girls allowed.” Back then, men were real male chauvinist puaas.
At our holiday dinners there is a child’s table set up in the corner, same in old Hawaii only it was the women’s table, at every meal.
Hawaiians had a kind of Thanksgiving, it’s called Makahiki, an islandwide celebration around the same time as our holiday.
It was a great feast but not for the womenfolk. They watched the men eat good food and afterward got to eat the plate, or maybe some scrappy fish and a papaya.
No pork, bananas or coconuts for the ladies, not even the leftovers.
This had to change. And one day in November 1819, it did.
Liholiho, King Kamehameha II, stepped up to the plate, so to speak, and brought everyone together for all time.
When the Great King Kamehameha passed away, his dashing young son, Liholiho, was the king and had the power to change anything he wanted. He started with the dinner table.
Right here in Kona, history was made.
It was a great feast, by the beach in Kona. The best people were there, the king, a few alii, John Parker, who would soon start the Parker Ranch, John Young, the governor of the Island of Hawaii. At the women’s table sat Queen regent Kaahumanu.
The women were seated downwind from the menfolk, eating their meager fare.
The men sat at their table, heaped high with succulent pork, ripe bananas, coconuts, and ahi. The dinner began in the usual way but suddenly the king stood up and, to the shock of everyone, sat down with the women and ate dinner.
This was unheard of, a descendant of a god, highest alii, eating with women! The whole party clapped their hands and yelled out “ai noa!” The kapu is broken!
They waited in terror for thunder to crack, and the Earth to swallow up the whole luau, but all was cool. No lightning, only laughter.
Soon afterward all could eat together and share the good food.
Thanks to the king on that November day, dinners now warmed the heart, the glowing family could sit around the table with mom and dad, tutu and the keiki. Dad carving the pig, Mom passing the poi.
Dennis Gregory mixes truth, humor and aloha in his biweekly column. He can be reached at makingwavess@yahoo.com