Moonlight (Malamalama o ka mahina)

While waiting for the moon to rise -- here's my view (while floating)

Phil and I are attending a weekly Hawaiian language class for beginners. The purpose is not to learn to speak fluent Hawaiian, a rich complex language that is very much alive and taught early to children attending local schools. Our goal is to learn what we can, so we may more fully appreciate the highly conceptual nature of this language, where for example, the word aloha means about 15 different things!

Moonlight on the water

Malamalama o ka mahina means moonlight in Hawaiian. Malamalama is also the name for a local school because this word also means light of knowledge. Lama means torch, lamp or light.  Each month for the full moon we make a trek down to the ocean to watch to moon rise over the water. The drive down at night is dark -- there are no street lights as we head due east from our house. Nor is the area where we swim lighted, so flashlights are essential. This last full moon we arrived about 45 minutes early, so it was very dark and the stars were brilliant.

It is absolutely delightful to walk down the well-worn lava steps and slide into the warm dark water at Ahalanui Park. Since I swim there several times a week, I know where all the edges of the large pool are and how to navigate in the dark. Just floating in the water under the stars is beyond magical.  This photo is exactly what I saw this visit. Then, as the moon rises, the eastern sky begins to lighten with moonlight playing tricks with the clouds. Moonlight also plays across the waves as they pile up and crash over the sea wall of the pool.

The ancient Polynesians navigators made their way to many isolated islands in the Pacific Ocean by celestial navigation -- using star "lines."  Currently the Polynesian Navigational Society is conducting a three-year voyage round the world using star charts like the one we have included here.

Two hand built voyaging canoes Hokule'a and Hikianalia, are traveling over 60,000 nautical miles around the world.  We encourage you to learn more about this amazing voyage by clicking on this link: Polynesian Voyaging Society .