The night marchers (huakaʻi pō)
- Origin
- Native Hawaiian belief about spirits of the dead. The earliest written account in these sources is in Thos. G. Thrum's Hawaiian Folk Tales (1907), from a Waimea man's report of seeing the procession. Martha Beckwith's Hawaiian Mythology (1940) records that many Hawaiians have seen or heard the marchers.
- How we treat it
- The label marks the huakaʻi pō as part of living Hawaiian belief. It makes no claim that the marchers exist, and it does not cover ghost-tour versions or films.
- Routes out
- No text by a Native Hawaiian author was found. Thrum's 1907 account comes first as the earliest record, then Beckwith's 1940 study, then Wikipedia, then Hawaiʻi Public Radio on the film.
In Hawaiian belief, the huakaʻi pō, or marchers of the night, are processions of spirits dressed as chiefs or gods. Martha Beckwith recorded in 1940 that many Hawaiians have seen or heard them.
Martha Beckwith's Hawaiian Mythology (1940) gives two names: Huakaʻi-pō, marchers of the night, and ʻOiʻo, spirit ranks. She writes that many Hawaiians, and some people of other descent, have seen the march or heard its chanting, flutes and drums. When seen, she says, the marchers wear ancient dress, as chiefs or as gods. A procession of gods walks five abreast, carrying five red torches between the ranks, with no music except chant.
Wikipedia describes the marchers as ghosts of Hawaiian warriors from long ago, deadly to meet, who lead the way for a sacred chief, chiefess or king.
The earliest account in these sources is in Thos. G. Thrum's Hawaiian Folk Tales (1907). It says a ghost procession, which Thrum spells Oio, makes a stately descent of the Mahiki road every year, entering the Lua o Milu there. A man then living in Waimea, described as trusted for his honesty, said he had seen it about thirty years before while walking up the road one evening. He knew that meeting the procession would mean his death, so he hid behind a tree and watched it, shaking.
Filmmakers Blake and Brent Cousins, from Hawaiʻi Island, made a film called The Night Marchers in 2001 and released a new version in 2019, Hawaiʻi Public Radio reported.
"Every year, so it is told, the procession of ghosts called by the natives Oio^ marches in solemn state down the Mahiki road, and at this point enters the Lua o Milu. A man, recently living in Waimea, of the best reputation for veracity, stated that about thirty or more years ago, he actually saw this ghostly company. He was walking up this road in the eve- ning, when he saw at a distance the Oio appear, and knowing that should they encounter him his death would be inevitable, he discreetly hid himself behind a tree and, trembling with fear, gazed in silence at the dread spectacle."
- Hawaiian Mythology, ch. X: The Soul After Death, Martha Beckwith (1940), Internet Sacred Text Archive
- Across Hawaii this Halloween, the Night Marchers Return, Dave Lawrence, Hawaiʻi Public Radio (31 October 2019)
- Nightmarchers, Wikipedia