Hawaiian Skies: Welehu 2025
By Leilehua Yuen, Hawaiʻi Culture and Language Resident at Gemini / NOIRLab
Welehu 2025 (October 22 - November 20, 2025)
“Kau ke poʻo i ka uluna, ʻo Welehu ka malama.” Rest the head on the pillow; Welehu is the month. In this stormy month, little could be done but stay at home and sleep. This is a saying that means one should have completed all work by now, so well-earned rest may be enjoyed.
On November 17, watch for the rising of the Pleiades at about sunset (17:42 [5:42 pm]). In the calculation method I was taught, nightfall of the following Hilo moon marks the beginning of the Makahiki. This year, the intercalary period is quite short, as the Hilo moon is November 21. However, as those who have been studying with me know, every time I teach something, I try to review the literature and see what kind of updates we have and what new research has come to light. Since I began this journey some 30 years ago, there has been SO MUCH!
Dr. Kalei Nuʻuhiwa received her palapala from Waikato in Aotearoa. She has made a deep study of the Makahiki and its opening ceremonies with her dissertation, Makahiki – Nā Maka o Lono Utilizing the Papakū Makawalu Method to Analyze Mele and Pule of Lono and the Makahiki. If you use the beautiful Hawaiian Civic Club Hawaiian Lunar Calendar posters, the research for those is done by Dr. Nuʻuhiwa. So, take a deeper dive into the Makahiki with Dr. Kalei Nuʻuhiwa!
Click to view in detail - Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/L. Yuen
Looking at our 8 p.m. star chart, Kahoʻoea (Vega) shines brightly across Ka-Iʻa (Milky Way) from Humu-mā (Altair and its companions). However, the Milky Way has moved so far Kona that Iʻa-Lele-i-ke-Aka is looking less and less like a great fish leaping in the shadowy heavens. Now it is like a wave breaking through the night sky, so at this point, Kahaʻihaʻi seems appropriate.
Hikina of Humu-mā is a small diamond-shaped grouping of stars. It is known to the western world as Delphinus. I hypothesize that this is ʻEhā-keoea, described by the writer Kupahu in 1865 as a diamond-shaped formation of four stars, 23rd in a line of 26 asterisms used in navigation.
Heading Koʻolau, yet another name for the fixed star, Polaris, is Noho-loa, meaning ever-dwelling. It is circled by Mūlehu, the triad of Polo-ahilani (Caph), Polo-ula (Schedar), and Mūlehu (Navi).
Polo-ahilani was a chief who had lost his vision, so he had two assistants to guide him as he walked. The stars are named for the chief and his assistants. We see this practice in other Hawaiian tales, most famously in the story of Imaikalani. Imaikalani was a great warrior who became blind later in life, and yet he remained unconquerable on the battlefield. As it turned out, he had pet kōloa (ducks). He was so attuned to their behavior that he could tell by their quacks and the sound of their wingbeats and waddling if strangers or friends were approaching. The ducks always knew long before the men of his kauhale when someone approached. He also had two young men who were trained to help him at home, when traveling, and when on the battlefield, chanting out the movements of the enemy so that he could fight. Between the ducks and the men, it was as though Imaikalani had four sets of eyes and four sets of ears.
Kaʻalolo (Hamal) is said to be the guardian star of Niʻihau.
Nā Inoa Hōkū identifies Algol as Kane. Kane also is identified by Fornander as the Sun. But, as we have seen, stars often share names. Kane also is said to be a star that appears only to priests as a portent of disaster.
Click to view in detail - Credit: NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/L. Yuen
As dawn approaches, around 04:00 (4:00 a.m.), we will have a chance to see a lovely sight, which is even lovelier this year! While most people consider Hōkū-lei to be Auriga, I think there is an even more spectacular candidate—a lei that surrounds our zenith like a crown composed of Hōkū-lei (Capella), Kao (Aldebarran aka Makaliʻi), Puana-kau (Rigel), Hiki-kau-e-Lono (Sirius), Ka-ʻōnohi-aliʻi (Procyon), and adorned by Māhoe-hope (Pollux), Māhoe-mua (Castor), and Menkalinan. Interestingly, Puana-kau could possibly translate as something like “surrounding emplaced.” Might it refer to the stars being emplaced in this garland?
Why do I consider it even prettier this year? ʻIao (Jupiter) threads itself onto this lei, which rises cloud-like [Lei: 2. vi. To leap, fling, toss, spring forward; to rise, as a cloud.] from our Hikina horizon, adding an extra twinkle.
Let’s now discuss the names of the stars in this large Hōkū lei. Both the Pleiades and Aldebaran have many names. In learning the kaʻao and moʻolelo (roughly translated as fables and histories) of these bodies, I have come to believe that each different name encodes information pertaining to the different activities important in people’s lives: fishing, farming, birdcatching, or other activities. One of our goals with this project is to see how many of these stories we can uncover for all the stars to learn how our ancestors solved the challenges that faced them.
Another translation of “puana” is “summary or refrain of a song.” One translation of “kau” is “to hang, place, or suspend.” So, for me, another way to think of Puana-kau is as the refrain of a song placed in the heavens, and we are searching for the verses.
Hiki-kau-e-Lono is one of the many Hawaiian names of Sirius. The most familiar name is probably ʻAʻā. This star is used in calculating the start of the Makahiki, the new year, which is the time of Lono, and this name indicates its relationship to the coming of Lono.
Ka-ʻōnohi-aliʻi (Procyon) is one of the navigational stars. Its name, “The chief’s eyeball,” indicates that it was important to navigators.
ʻIao (Jupiter) literally translates to English as “daylight” and is the name of Jupiter when it is a morning star. As in many other cultures, the movement of the planets against the backdrop of the stars was studied for hōʻailona (portents) of earthly events.
I have been wondering of late about the names Ka-maile-mua and Ka-maile-hope and what relationship Nā-mahoe (Castor and Pollux) might have to Maile, Alyxia olivaeformis, a fragrant native vining shrub used in lei making. Maile also is the term for a flexible stick or wand used in the game ʻume. Casting far back in memory to tales of our aliʻi and akua playing royal games, the work of historian David Malo comes to mind.
Ume was a pastime that was very popular with all the Hawaiians. It was… played in the following manner. A large enclosure, or pa, was made in the midst of or close to the town.
This done, all the people took hold and helped to collect a large quantity of faggots [bundles of sticks]; and when it came night a bonfire was started, which made it as light as day, and all the people gathered together.
When all were seated in a circle within the enclosure, a man stood forth as the president of the assembly and called them to order. Another man also came forward and chanted a… song, waving in his hand the while a long wand which was trimmed at intervals with tufts of bird-feathers. He waved this to and fro as he moved about, repeating at the same time the words of his song.
As he made his circuit, passing in front of the people, he selected the fine-looking women and the handsome men, and the man and woman whom he indicated by touching them with his wand went out and enjoyed themselves together.
ʻUme is generally thought of as a game for the makaʻāinana rather than the aliʻi. We know that some of the aliʻi did break away from their chiefly duties and enjoy “time off.” I posit that Hōkū-lei, Kao, Puana-kau, Hiki-kau-e-Lono, and Ka-ʻōnohi-aliʻi form the pā for a game of ʻume, and that our twins are holding the maile wands to tap the players. There in the center is ʻAua, which can serve as our fire burning brightly. The game pūhenehene also uses the maile, or feather-decorated wand, but does not fit the layout of the stars so well.
