Ancient Hawaiian Games

Ancient Hawaiian Games
By M.H., K.F., and C.S.

We are the games/sledding group.  We have collected certain information for you that will help you understand old Hawaii better.

    Hawaiians played games all year long and played in their free time.  They also had a special holiday called makahiki to play all kinds of sporting games and events.  It was the fourth month of the year when they had makahiki.
    The games were mostly played in the kula division of the ahupua’a.  There are three divisions in each ahupua’a.  The first one is uka, high up in the mountains in the back of the valley, the second division , kula is the plains and flat land in the middle of the ahupua’a, and the last division is kai, the shore and ocean.  The ocean in the kai division of the ahupua’a goes out 2 miles out of the shore.  That’s where the ahupua’a ends, from the high mountains in the back of the valley, to the ocean, 2 miles out.  The special field that the ancient Hawaiians used to play in for most of their games  was called a kahua.  We think it would be in the kula division.  The Kahua would not fit in the uka division because that division is high up in the mountains so it won’t make any sense that they put a field in the mountains.  They will probably not put it in the kai division because it is by the ocean all though they did games in the ocean too.
    Hawaiian played games all year long and played on their free time.  They also had a special holiday called makahiki to play all kinds of sporting and game events.  It was the fourth month of the year when they had makahiki.  
    Ulu maika is a Hawaiian game from old Hawaii.  The old Hawaiian game was for fun and also trained the warriors to improve their strength.  The game took a lot of skill.  Men only played the game back then.  The disk was made from green ulu, or breadfruit.  They found the ulu, or breadfruit in the kula division.  That is how the game was named, ulu maika.  Maika means stone.  Later the disks were made from stone still  keeping the same shape.Ulu 'Maika.pdf  Ulu maika document.pdf
    Holua sledding is a very dangerous sport that only the Ali’is could play back in the old ancient days.  Holua sledding is a game copied from surfing but is an even dangerous sport.  The track was on land on top of rocks covered in pili grass.  The wood made for holua sledding was made by wood lashed together with coconut fiber.  The speed of a holua sled is about up to fifty miles per hour.

Click here to see pictures of a holua sled:
Pictures of sled.pdf
    The purpose for most of the ancient hawaiian games were to train warriors.  Some of the games were for fun.  Most of the games that helped train warriors had weapons like spears that would prepare them for a real fight.  The weapons also helped the warriors get used to what they were going to use in real fights.
    The materials for most of the games were usually found in the uka division like koa wood like for sleds and for sticks for the ulu maika, then they made the game equipment from the kula division.  They also got some materials from the kula division.
    This is all the information we collected so far.  We hope you understand old Hawaii better.  Thank you for reading our report.     
    

Posted on May 14, 2008 1:23 PM | Permalink