Posted on: Sunday, November 25, 2001

Family Matters
Reflecting on the lavishness of our Thanksgiving

By Ka'ohua Lucas

With Thanksgiving still fresh in our minds from a few days ago, I am reflecting on the holiday:

"Your family has such a lavish Thanksgiving," my husband flatly remarked as he scanned an advertisement for Butterball turkeys.

"Are you complaining?" I asked.

"No, no, no," he denied. "I just noticed that you folks seem to spend a great deal of time preparing the meal, and then there always seems to be a lot more than what we can eat."

I launched into my explanation about food, and how Hawaiians revered it.

Before the arrival of missionaries in the Islands, religious occasions and human milestones were observed through feasting. Fasting was unheard of.

"Food, often scarce, was precious," the late Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui once wrote. "What was precious was symbolically offered to the gods. Also, eating was pleasant. Man felt closer to his fellow man when the 'opu (belly) was being filled."

"So you can understand the symbolic implication of our 'ohana in food preparation and consumption, right, dear?" I asked.

At that moment the phone rang. I answered it.

"Oh, hi, Mom," I answered cheerfully, glancing at my husband. "Yes, your son-in-law and I were just having a discussion of what to bring for Thanksgiving."

As my mom described the menu, I repeated her list aloud, waiting for his reaction.

"So, we've got a couple of turkeys, stuffing, rice, poi, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, green salad, cranberry sauce and several different kinds of desserts," I repeated. "What? You want me to bring my famous kalo (taro), 'ulu (breadfruit) and 'uala (sweet potato) salad? Hiki no! (Can do!)"

I hung up the phone.

"See what I mean?" my husband said, continuing our earlier conversation. "There's so much food, and most of it is carbohydrates i heart attack central!"

"Listen, all you have to do is make wise choices in your food selection," I said.

"Yeah, Dad," my 11-year-old piped up. "Instead of trying every dish, limit yourself to one or two carbs!"

"You should talk, Refrigerator Perry," my husband said referring to the 300-pound former defensive lineman of the Chicago Bears.

"Hey, maybe we should starve ourselves before Thanksgiving," my youngest countered.

This made me recall how, once Christianity reached the Islands, Hawaiians were introduced to religious fasting.

This was a new concept for them.

"It was a startling precept — that the new god actually liked to have men be hungry!" writes Pukui. "For Hawaiians had always invoked their gods by feasting. To go without food deliberately i if anyone had ever considered anything so foolish i would certainly have displeased the gods. Ho'oke 'ai? Abstain from food? 'Ano 'e! How odd!"

As I sat there at the dining room table while the men in the family leaped into the air, colliding chests in celebration of a football touchdown on television, I reflected.

There are those who won't be spending Thanksgiving with their loved ones.

There are those who lost relatives and friends in the Sept. 11 attack.

There are military personnel overseas combating terrorism.

And there are those who are destitute and homeless.

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I hope that you've spent all the time you wanted with your family and relished the mea'ai (food).

Hala no ia la o ka pololi. A hungry day passes. A Hawaiian expression used of thankfulness that there is food for another day.

Ka'ohua Lucas has an 18-year-old daughter and two sons, 11 and 7. She hold a master's degree in education curriculum and instruction, and works as an educational consultant on Hawaiian curriculum. Write to her at: Family Matters, 'Ohana Section, The Honolulu Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802; e-mail ohana@honoluluadvertiser.com or fax 535-8170.