Hawaii travel offers more than just the expected things tourists have come to associate with the beautiful island.  It also has a rich religious background.  The first settlers of the island actually came from Polynesia in 1000 A.D.   They also settled the island with their established gods and goddesses and beliefs about them.  To this day, Pele, the fierce goddess whose dominion is the volcanoes of Hawaii, remains a fixture in Hawaii’s religious culture, with some people still adhering to the ancient belief system that the Polynesians brought with them.   Those ancient people thought that she resided in the deep burning lava that bubbled threateningly beneath Kilauea.

Pele is an example of how not all the goddesses were earth mothers.  Some were just as fierce as the warrior gods that took up space in the religious pantheon.  Kihawahine, a water goddess, and Laka, a forest goddess, despite their associations with nature, were just as big and bad as some of the gods associated with battle and destruction.

However, this ancient belief system was challenged in the early 19th century by King Kamehameha.  Christianity was starting to take over as the new religion of the isle through the many successful campaigns missionaries made to the island.  Yet, there was still a large amount of religious diversity, especially when the Chinese and Japanese started to settle the island, bringing their home religions of Buddhism and Shintoism .  other Asian immigrants have added even more rich spiritual diversity to the island.  Philippines, Japanese, and Koreans  have all contributed to the ever-widening spiritual belief system.  Much like the United States, Hawaii is like a concentrated version of its country, a mixed salad of almost every belief system out there.  Still, when many people come to Hawaii, they expect the old religious traditions that the Polynesians first brought with them.  The ceremonies, dances, names, these things are still remembered, but the reason for them is slowly passing away.

Nevertheless, for people who want more of their Hawaii cruises or vacations, more than just the usual luaus and leis, there are still old holy sites around to see, though many are not much more than crumbling ruins.  They were not grand temples or buildings of any sort, but rather stone walls that displayed carvings of those fierce goddesses and gods originally brought to the island.

Discover religious history of Hawaii while on vacation is a post from: Telugu Stuff.com

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