Mele Kalikimaka --another myth

I cannot get worked up about this. So it’s a made-up saying. That made its first appearance in a Hawaiian-language newspaper? The issues that created it are the bigger matter, but the words themselves? meh

I will just be quietly grateful that although I bought a Hawaiian Santa stamp set years ago, I never got around to making any (probably completely tasteless) cards with it that might have got me in trouble.

oh, I didn’t mean you were worked up … I was just responding to the article and the scholarly takes on it. They’re complaining about cultural appropriation re something that native Hawaiians themselves apparently started.

I will always love it because I picture my grandfather singing it. He and my grandmother were stationed in Hawaii when their first grandchildren were born, and they had a great love for the state. Even after they moved back to the mainland, they adopted/continued a fair amount of Hawaiian flavor, for lack of a better word. He was quite the character - in both good and bad ways - but I have very distinct memories of him playing this on the organ they had crammed into a corner of their small den, grinning like a madman with blinding white false teeth beaming out of a super tanned face, smoking his cigarette in a short little holder and singing this song.

Appropriation or not, it will always bring ME joy.

Eh, I learned it in second grade when we first moved to Hawaii and have been belting it out ever since. Hawaii was a territory then and became a state 4 years later. Wonderful place to grow up.

That reminded me of my Japanese friend who would get very upset when movies had an actor speaking Japanese with an American accent. I guess she felt they should use a Japanese actor. My position is actors are pretending to be someone, not actually someone.

Back to the topic, I think I’d be annoyed if a popular song was ,”Bebishfhdks” is the way to say good day in the grand old USA.” I’d be thinking, “Seriously? What is wrong with you?”

This. While the song itself is problematic, the phrase is not. There are many loan words in the Hawaiian language such as:

kelepona = telephone
Kaleponi = California
minuke = minute

and so forth. We simply need the Hawaiian equivalent of words in other languages to facilitate communication. Christmas was a foreign idea to Hawaiians, so they did not have a word for it in their language. So was merry.

Mele is an actual Hawaiian word, most commonly used to mean song/chant. In this case, if you've been in Hawaiʻi long enough (or born and raised here like myself), you would recognize that, in this context, it means merry. 
 
Are there alternatives to convey this idea in a way that better aligns with Hawaiian thought? Yes. Common alternatives are:

Aloha Kalikimaka
Lā (Day) Kalikimaka
Hauʻoli (Happy) Kalikimaka

There are numerous other options.

As for the word kalikimaka, the article states that the phrase Mele Kalikimaka first appeared in print in 1904. I do want to point out that a form of the word Christmas first appeared in a Hawaiian newspaper in 1865 and was referred to as Karisimasa. The word Kalikimaka first appeared in a Hawaiian newspaper in 1877. Just pointing out that Karisimasa/Kalikimaka were already in use for quite some time. 

Makes sense.  The article does say, "So, what does it mean? “Nothing,” says Holton. “It’s basically gibberish.”  “Hawaiian has just eight consonant sounds and nothing like a consonant cluster, where multiple consonants come together to form a new sound, like in the English word ‘strength,’ which starts with three consonants and ends with a four-letter cluster,” Holton says. He adds that the two syllables in “Christmas” became five in “kalikimaka” because of the Hawaiian language’s syllable structure: A consonant sound must be accompanied by at least one vowel sound."  So that's where I was going from. 

I was going by what the linguistics professor and Rodrigues said. 

So, what does it mean? “Nothing,” says Holton. “It’s basically gibberish.”

Back on the islands, reactions are more mixed. While some Hawaiians are happy to sing along as they shop for a tree to take home, Rodrigues says that his friends and family “cringe when someone says it. The song is even worse. It’s dripping with smugness.”

When Native Americans were attempting to get the Washington Redskins to change their name, some Native Americans didn’t care. Since different opinions exist in any group, when I’m not part of a minority group, I don’t have standing so want to pay attention to what’s offensive to some. Just my take. 

I hear you and get it, as well your take on happy festival, though since not everyone celebrates Christmas and this is a diverse area, when I don’t know I say happy holidays (U.S.). Or happy whatever they celebrate if I know. 

Anyway, you see it differently than the linguistics guy and those mentioned in the article, and given your experience and education, so quite possibly they’re a tiny minority. I just figure since I don’t have standing, if 10% of any minority group objects to certain language usage, I won’t use it. It doesn’t cost me anything to stop. And I can’t know if it’s five or ten or eighty percent who don’t like whatever it is, if that makes sense.

lol. i was telling DH about this and warned him not to go around greeting people with that phrase.