Wishing you and your loved ones peace, health, happiness and prosperity in the coming New Year! Merry Christmas!!!
One of my favorite Christmas songs, Henry Kapono – Merry Christmas to You:
Wishing you and your loved ones peace, health, happiness and prosperity in the coming New Year! Merry Christmas!!!
One of my favorite Christmas songs, Henry Kapono – Merry Christmas to You:
People celebrate holiday meals in different ways and at different times – for some, the special meal is Christmas dinner; for us, our big meal was Christmas Eve.
As a kid, it seemed like we always had others over at our house for dinner at this time of year. For a while, Marines shared our table.
It started before Thanksgiving …
We grew up on Kāne‘ohe Bay Drive, not far from the Marine Base. The community were always accommodating to those young men.
I remember when I was little, my mother packed us in the Ford Fairlane station wagon and we’d “go for a ride.”
So, there we are, three kids and a mom piled in a car … and my mother was looking to pick up Marines.
It’s not how it sounds.
When we spotted some, we’d stop and offer them a ride – they always accepted.
As we drove them to Kailua (their usual destination,) we used our body and sign language to confirm if they were “the right ones.”
When my mother felt the time was right, she popped the question – “Would you nice young men like to join us for Thanksgiving Dinner?”
They agreed. A few days later, we shared our Thanksgiving dinner with 3-4 Marines.
They then joined us for Christmas; my mother sewed an aloha shirt for each of them as a Christmas present.
Over the years, these guys continued to exchange Christmas cards with my mother; I know it made her happy.
Later, 2-3 members of the Oregon swim team stayed at our house and joined us for holiday meals (UH had a swim meet around Thanksgiving / Christmas and we joined other local families in hosting members of the visiting teams.)
I also remember my parents having a special “champagne” with dinner – Cold Duck (it had nothing to do with the swim team – for them, it was a special wine for the special meal).
For us, in the early years, Christmas Eve dinner was pretty much like Thanksgiving dinner – turkey and the works; in later years we had roast beef.
At Christmas, after all the open houses the neighborhood would go to, the neighbors ended up at our house for Chinese dinner (take out from Ching Lee Chop Suey in Kailua).
As a little kid, the approaching night was a difficult time to sleep – the anticipation, the expectation … the joy of the time. I don’t think I’ll sleep well tonight, either.
And, let’s not forget the reason for the season. Merry Christmas!!!
When we were little, my brother David sang this in a school program – since then, it has been my favorite Christmas song. Here is Willie K singing O Holy Night:
by Peter T Young Leave a Comment
Napoleon I, French Napoléon Bonaparte, original Italian Napoleone Buonaparte, byname the Corsican or the Little Corporal, French byname Le Corse or Le Petit Caporal, (born August 15, 1769, Ajaccio, Corsica—died May 5, 1821, St. Helena Island), French general, first consul (1799–1804), and emperor of the French (1804–1814/15), one of the most celebrated personages in the history of the West.
He revolutionized military organization and training; sponsored the Napoleonic Code, the prototype of later civil-law codes; reorganized education; and established the long-lived Concordat with the papacy. (Britannica)
After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804. Shrewd, ambitious and a skilled military strategist, Napoleon successfully waged war against various coalitions of European nations and expanded his empire.
After a streak of victories, France secured a dominant position in continental Europe and Napoleon maintained the French sphere of influence through the formation of extensive alliances.
However, after a disastrous French invasion of Russia in 1812, Napoleon abdicated the throne two years later and was exiled to the island of Elba.
In 1815, he briefly returned to power in his Hundred Days campaign. After a crushing defeat at the Battle of Waterloo, he abdicated once again and was exiled to the remote island of Saint Helena. (History-com)
Napoleon Bonaparte died (apparently of stomach cancer) at 5:49pm on May 5, 1821, at Longwood on the island of Saint Helena.
Napoleon’s rise and prominence in power was concurrent with George Washington, and … Kamehameha.
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)
The first president of the United States, George Washington, serving from 1789 to 1797, is often referred to as the Father of Our Country.
He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783.
After victory had been finalized in 1783, Washington resigned rather than seize power, proving his opposition to dictatorship and his commitment to the emerging American political ideology of republicanism. Washington was elected as the first president in 1789, and re-elected 1792.
Dissatisfied with the weaknesses of Articles of Confederation, in 1787, Washington presided over the Constitutional Convention that drafted the United States Constitution.
Kamehameha I (ca. 1758 – May 8, 1819)
Kamehameha was initially known as Paiʻea, which means “hard-shelled crab;” Kamehameha means “The Lonely One.” Raised in the royal court of his uncle, Kalaniʻōpuʻu, Kamehameha achieved prominence in 1782, upon Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death.
While the kingship was inherited by Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s son Kiwalaʻo, Kamehameha was given the prominent position of guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.
In 1785, Kamehameha married Ka‘ahumanu, the daughter of one of his most trusted advisors. In 1790, he attained control of Hawai‘i Island, then he successfully invaded the Islands of Maui, Lāna‘i, Molokai and O‘ahu, by 1795.
Ultimately, in 1810, Kauai’s Kaumuali‘i decided to peacefully yield and unite with Kamehameha and join the rest of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
Kamehameha instituted the Kānāwai Māmalahoe, the Law of the Splintered Paddle. The law, “Let every elderly person, woman and child lie by the roadside in safety,” is enshrined in the state constitution, Article 9, Section 10, and has become a model for modern human rights law regarding the treatment of civilians and other non-combatants.
In the Islands …
1821 Wood Frame House
The wood-framed Mission House, built in 1821, was one of the first wood-framed buildings built in Hawai‘i. The frame house stands on the grounds of the Hawaiian Mission Houses, near Kawaiahaʻo Church on the makai side of King Street.
It is the oldest wood frame structure and the oldest intact Western structure still standing in the Hawaiian Islands.
The timbers of Maine white pine were cut and fitted in Boston in 1819 and came around the Horn on the brig Thaddeus with the first mission company in April 1820, arriving first in Kona. The frame of the house arrived in Honolulu on Christmas morning of that year on board the ship Tartar.
Since the lumber for this New England plan type was actually pre-cut prior to shipment, it could also be considered in a broad sense a very early example of prefabrication.
Architecturally, it has a simple and straight-forward design; the relatively low ceilings, and basement are strong evidence of its New England concept, foreign to the temperate climate of Honolulu.
The Frame House was used as a communal home by many missionary families who shared it with island visitors and boarders. It served as a residence for various missionaries, including Hiram Bingham, Gerrit Parmele Judd and Elisha Loomis.
Today the frame house is maintained by the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society as a memorial to the early missionary effort in the Hawaiian Islands.
Liholiho Moves Royal Center from Kailua-Kona to Honolulu
Early in 1821, Liholiho moved his court from Kailua-Kona, Hawai‘i Island to Honolulu. The royal siblings, Kauikeaouli and Nahiʻenaʻena, together with their mother, Keōpūolani and her husband Hoapili, journeyed with the chiefs to Oʻahu.
As was traditional, one of the first acts of the new mōʻī was to make a royal progression around Oʻahu to visit the people. Lilholiho’s selected route took him from Honolulu through the Koʻolau region to Waialua to “enjoy the fat mullet of Ukoʻa and to catch aholehole fish” and then by way of “Kaʻena point to Waiʻanae and then to Honolulu.” He then went to Kauai (McGregor and MacKenzie)
Liholiho Buys Cleopatra’s Barge for 1-million Pounds of Sandalwood
In the central Pacific, practically every vessel that visited the North Pacific in the closing years of the 18th century stopped at Hawai‘i for provisions and recreation; then, the opening years of the 19th century saw the sandalwood business became a recognized branch of trade.
Sandalwood, geography and fresh provisions made the Islands a vital link in a closely articulated trade route between Boston, the Northwest Coast and Canton, China.
At the same time, the Hawaiian demand for American goods was rapidly increasing, owing to the improved standards of living. The central location of the Hawaiian Islands brought many traders, and then whalers, to the Islands.
For a while, sandalwood was a medium of exchange in the Islands.
A boat named Cleopatra’s Barge arrived at Lāhainā, Maui, on November 6, 1820; the very next day Liholiho (Kamehameha II) was welcomed aboard along with some family members and attendants.
Liholiho’s father Kamehameha had loved foreign ships; over time he had collected a sizable fleet of Western vessels, which, with guns and training by the foreigners, were a major asset in unifying and maintaining his kingdom across the islands.
Liholiho inherited his father’s love of ships; one of his childhood companions remembered seeing Liholiho frequently sailing a boat model “like a real man-of-war” on a pond and also recalled that their favorite boyhood pastime was drawing ships in the sand at the beach.
Just ten days after his first visit to the ship, Liholiho purchased Cleopatra’s Barge and her cargo for 1.07-million pounds of sandalwood, worth $80,000 at the time.
On January 4, 1821, King Liholiho took formal possession of Cleopatra’s Barge, appointing his personal secretary, Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Rives, as temporary captain.
Liholiho then renamed the yacht ‘Ha‘aheo O Hawai‘i’ (Pride of Hawaiʻi.)
They are easy to identify … and their name tells you what to look for (their body and head shape resemble a hammer, when viewed from above (or below.))
Marine organisms generate an electric field around their body; some believe the shape of the hammerhead’s head allows electro-receptive organs in the animal to have increased sensory abilities – a beneficial quality when searching for prey.
In addition, the head shape may aid in their movements, providing lift or possibly a smaller turning radius.
Since sharks are ‘apex predators’ at the top of their food chain, they may influence the population structure of species lower in that food chain.
The sharks are found in warm and tropical waters, worldwide from 46° north to 36° south. They can be found down to depths of over 1,600 feet, but is most often found above 80-feet. During the day they are more often found close to shore and at night they hunt further offshore.
The scalloped hammerhead, one of the most commonly seen hammerhead sharks in Hawaiʻi, generally reaches between 5 to 10-feet in length – adults are usually found in the open ocean, often around seamounts or outer reef slopes.
Most fish hatch from eggs outside the females’ bodies, but hammerheads, as well as other sharks, are born alive – the shark babies are called ‘pups.’ As the pups grow, they spread out, forming schools that feed on the bottom at night. At maturity, the young sharks head offshore. (Scott)
Kāneʻohe Bay, Oahu, Hawaii, is a pupping and nursery ground for the scalloped hammerhead shark and hammerhead shark pups are the most abundant top-level predator in the bay. (Lowe)
Females travel to shallow, protected waters in the spring and summer months to give birth.
Between April and October, adult hammerhead sharks enter Kāneʻohe Bay, deliver 15 to 30-pups about 20-inches long, mate and then leave. (Scott)
It is estimated that as many as 5,000-10,000-shark pups are born in Kāneʻohe Bay each year and that the pups remain in the bay only 3-4 months after being born. They eat small fish and crustaceans.
Young hammerheads graze along the bay floors, mostly at night. As the youngsters grow, they gradually move to the mouths of the bay and eventually join their relatives in the deep water. (Scott)
Adults occur singly, in pairs, and in small schools while young scalloped hammerhead sharks live in large schools. It is thought that male and female scalloped hammerheads may segregate during certain times of their life history. (ufl-edu)
Hammerheads are among the majority of sharks whose attacks on people, if they happen at all, are defensive in nature. Almost all sharks will show an aggressive display if cornered, as will most animals. (pbs)
Though hammerheads are not usually aggressive, they should be considered potentially dangerous.