The lei hala (pandanus) is renowned as a favored lei of the goddess Hiʻiaka-i-ka-poli-o-Pele. It figures in the saga of her journey to fetch Lohiʻa-ipo for her elder sister, Pele. The district of Puna is famed for the fragrance of its hala groves.
But one cannot say that one specific story is the intent every time a haku lei makes a lei hala. Different families may have completely different stories. One of the classic examples that was taught to me when I was young, of why it’s important to know the moʻolelo behind the lei, is there’s a beautiful song that this man writes. I think his sweetheart is a beautiful lei hala, and he is like a lei lehua, and the two are wili ʻia together.
If you understand these two lei, you know that the heavy weight of the hala is going to crush the lehua. It’s a really beautiful song, and the poetry sounds lovely, but what it’s really saying is, “You’re crushing the life out of me.”
However, there are different meanings of hala, Did he choose hala because it can mean loss? And so, despite the pain that this relationship gives him, did he choose to express her as hala because it is very painful to lose her even though there are these problems?
Also, there is not just that one meaning of hala as the ʻeha kind of loss, that tearing apart of what could have been a viable relationship. You can also give the lei hala at a funeral, to give the encouragement to release the pain of losing this person. So, is the haku mele, or the haku lei really focusing on the release of pain?
Then of course, if you’re in Puna, it can take on a completely different meaning because it’s so emblematic of Hiʻiaka and her love of Puna. Puna was renowned for the scent of the hala. Unfortunately, as people have cut down the old ulu hala, the hala groves, it is no longer so prominent. Puna paia ʻala i ka hala, “Puna fragrant with the pandanus.” It’s sad to lose that. But, perhaps by singing these songs, and making the lei whenever possible, people will be inspired to replant, and Puna will once again be redolent with the fragrance of pandanus.
Another important hala moʻolelo tells of when Hiʻiaka sees a crippled woman on the beach. Hiʻiaka takes the hala keys from the lei she’s wearing and she casts them down to the wahine muʻumuʻu. In Aunty Nona Beamer’s of the story, the fragrance of the hala is what allows the woman to release the pain that she was in of having her lima, her hands, and her wāwae, her feet, removed. The story never tells us why that happened to her, but Hiʻiaka’s compassion is powerful, and a beautiful thing to remember by wearing the lei hala.
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