Recently, Tim and I were invited by our neighbor to go to the Establishment Day Hawaiian Festival at the Pu'ukohola Heiau national historic site in Kawaihae. This is the real deal, not just some luau put on for tourists. Tribes come from the other islands for the Royal Court ceremonies and there's a day of cultural demonstrations, warrior exhibitions, and all kinds of crafts, like lei-making and so on.
They chant, dance, and go through this huge ceremony in Hawaiian. Then when the ceremony is over they fight! No joke, all the men get out spears and fight each other!! It was really cool. I guess in 2005 one guy got speared in the face and they had to stitch him up on site. It was fascinating to see how into it they all were and how important this was to them.
As you can see, they take this whole spear fighting thing very seriously.
This guy (below, with his hands in the air) beat all of the other guys who tried soooo hard to get him with their spears and couldn't. Yep. All of these spear throwing pictures are of them trying to get him. lol.
This shot below is one of my favorites because he's holding up the winner's hand and you can see the expression of the guy on the right who lost. (Click on it to get a closer view)
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