In The Garden
Friday, December 31, 1999
File photos
According to the Year 2000 Ancient Hawaiian Moon Calendar,
fruit-bearing trees were best planted at full moon. Breadfruit, left,
was a staple of the Hawaii diet. Farmers of old expected new shoots
to sprout from taro plants, center, in the month of nana, which falls
in March. Ti leaf plants, right, were called "ki" in Hawaiian and
served many useful purposes in ancient Hawaii.
IN six days, as a sliver of a new moon appears in the western horizon, the time will be right to plant gourds, sugar cane, watermelon, bananas, taro, sweet potato and corn, according to the traditional Hawaiian moon calendar. Fishing will be good, too, with low tide and a calm sea in the evening. Time to plant, time to reap
Ancient Hawaiian calendars set
everyday tasks in tune with natureBut in another week, procrastinators will be out of luck. Jan. 12 will be an 'ole day, unsuitable for gardening or fishing. It's an unlucky day that will yield zero results.
"There were days in the old Hawaiian calendar that were 'ole days. On those days, you rested because you would get nothing anyway," said Barbara Mills, author of the Year 2000 Ancient Hawaiian Moon Calendar Related to Fishing & Farming.
"The Hawaiians really had the right idea. On certain days, you worked. If you were a farmer, you planted things. If you were a fisherman, you went fishing. On 'ole days, you stopped what you were doing and rested.
YEAR 2000
ANCIENT HAWAIIAN
MOON CALENDARTo order: send $7.95, plus $5 for postage and handling, to Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club, P.O. Box 4728, Honolulu, 96812.
"But that didn't mean you wasted your time. You would still do small chores: farmers would clean their fields, fishermen would mend their nets. You always had something to do."
The 70-something Mills is an expert on the ancient Hawaiian calendar, having studied Hawaiian culture most of her adult life. She wrote the calendar based on her research more than 30 years ago and she has donated it to the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club to use as a fund-raiser.
The ancient Hawaiians had different calendars for different islands, Mills said. This calendar contains planting and fishing practices for Oahu only.
When Mills published the calendar herself, it was a single sheet of paper with only words and numbers. This year, Native Books was the publisher and added colors and graphics to the calendar. It's attractive and useful, but don't expect a decorative calendar filled with splashy color pictures. This is a practical calendar best used as a reference.
Mills became interested in all things Hawaiian while growing up in Boston in the late 1920s. The hapa-Hawaiian songs she heard on the family's victrola lit the fire. When she went to Colorado College, a handsome graduate from Kamehameha Schools stole her heart.
"I was smart enough to know, when I first saw him, that he was for me. So I chased him for four years, and we got married right after graduation."
Mills has been studying Hawaiian language and culture since she met her husband-to-be George. She went to the libraries and checked out every Hawaii-related book she could find, and she pestered everyone who had the slightest knowledge. By the time she came to the islands to begin a family, she already was an authority on her husband's home state.
"The Hawaiians were very close to nature, and they were guided by the forces of nature in their everyday lives. They worked with nature. I feel very strongly that the Hawaiians had the secret to living in harmony with nature," Mills said.
Modern day farmers and gardeners have a lot to learn from the ancient Hawaiians, Mills said. "They knew when to work hard, and they knew when to relax and party. And they had days when they recognized the gods. They knew how to pace themselves."
The Hawaiians were tuned to the changes of the moon and the seasons, and devised a calendar that helped them produce food for the table. The year was divided into two seasons, ho'oilo (wet season) and kau (hot season.) A year had 12 months of 30 days each, with six months in each season.
Activities in the garden are dictated by the calendar, according to the month and the day of the month. In the month of ka'elo, which corresponds to most of January, plants become soaked with rain water and plant-eating worms appear, the calendar says. A variety of suitable plantings are listed for the first day of ka'elo, which falls on Jan. 6. The next day is best for planting of sweet potatoes.
As the year ends with the month of makali'i, which corresponds to the end of November and most of December, plantings die down and farmers clean the fields for a new crop after the makahiki celebrations.
Gardening Calendar in Do It Electric!
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