Halloween lingers for a few more hours here in the central Pacific, even though the various ghosts, goblins, zombies and assorted monsters of 2021 have receded into history on the North American mainland. Every culture has its own cast of scary characters, bred in the fertile imagination of its people. And rightfully so: life can be frightening. We come into the world helpless and fragile and we learn as toddlers that our sojourn here will be a brief one — but how and when it will end we do not know.
So we spin tales and develop legends to help us make sense of the mystery that surrounds us and accompanies us along life’s journey. The Native Hawaiians have their own rich mythology, populated with gods and goddesses, ghosts and spirit animals, along with sacred plants and places. Among the most frightening are the night marchers, known in Hawaiian as the huaka’i pō.
They are the ghosts of ancient warriers, but unlike other lapu, these ghosts are not released from their responsibilities by mere death. They continue to serve their ali’i (chief, king or queen), long after he or she has also entered the spirit realm. On nights set aside to honor the four major Hawaiian deities, and on the fourth night of the full moon, they emerge from their graves and accompany their spectral ruler in a ritual procession to ancient battlefields or other sacred places (wahi pana).
