A'ea'e mohala i luna o ke kukui - Whiteness unfolds on the kukui trees. Used in reference to a person who grays, comparing him to a blooming kukui tree laden with white flowers
Hawai'i has a very rich tradition of proverbs and poetical sayings and 'Olelo No'eau is Hawai'i's compendium of pithy oral gems. Collected and translated by renowned linguist Mary Kawena Pukui, Olelo No'eau offers a glimpse at ancient Hawai'i's profound understanding and tawny sense of humor toward the human condition, it's love of literary techniques from allegories to analogies, irony, puns, metaphor, and the double entendre to a full line up of ephitets, jokes, adages, riddles, and aphorisms.
Kukui or Candlenut blossoms in full bloom.
When it comes to the Ancient Hawaiian understanding of aging, going gray was like the blossoming of a kukui tree with it's mop of beautiful white blossoms. Aging was embraced and celebrated, not abhorred, and the kupuna or elders, were revered and held in high esteem not to be dismissed as irrelevant or shuttered away in some institution to die, forgotten.
Kimo's Kalabash is a repository of some of the cultural gems and treasures that make Hawai'i such an unique and profound place to live and the importance of the Hawaiian Culture and the Hawaiian Sovereignty movement and it's continued role in preserving Hawai'i nei from the onslaught of exploitation and unchecked consumerism.
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