Current Events > This month marks the 200th anniversary of the abolishment of the 'Ai Kapu system

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The (religious) system governing protocol, procedures, and rites throughout Hawaiian society. It's origin tied to Hawaiian creation mythology, where the Sky Father, Wakea, wanted to sleep with his daughter, Ho'ohokukalani, and thus made his Kahuna create the 'Ai kapu system so as to get it on with his daughter without his wife, Papahanaumoku (Earth Mother), knowing. Thus their firstborn, Haloa, was a stillborn, buried to later sprout as taro, (the plant root food that you pound to make poi). Their second child, also named Haloa (in honor of the firstborn), was the first Hawaiian of the Hawaiian race.

However, Ho'ohokukalani was a good girl, and told her mother about it. Thus Papa slept with another deity in response. Papahanamoku and Wakea eventually reconciled and then gave birth to the rest of the Hawaiian islands.

But back to the subject of 'Ai kapu. Liholiho, shortly after becoming Kamehameha the Second, following the death of his father, Kamehameha the First, decided to abolish the 'Ai kapu system at the urging of Christian missionaries, solidifying the Kamehameha line in ruling Hawaii.