by Todd on Fri 17 Dec 2004 08:12 PM PST Christmas music can mean so many things. One of my favorite Christmas music memories is listening to Hawaiian Christmas songs in Hawaii at Christmas time. Some are traditional Christmas carols sung with Hawaiian lyrics, others are original songs in English with Hawaiian and English words such as "Mele Kalikimaka.

" Many years ago, when my Auntie Rose still lived in the Nuanu Valley, just outside Honolulu, our family would visit her at Christmas time. It was at one of these Christmas visits that our family was invited to the Lau family Christmas luau on Kaneohe Bay. In the afternoon the family had put the Kailu pig, smothered in leaves, in the pit to roast with hot rocks, Grandma Lau was cooking squid in a huge pot.

By dinner time, the sky had gone dark, and the Christmas party was outdoors underneath Christmas lights strung up across the back yard. Uncle Tony was dressed up as Santa Claus, and he laughed with a thick Hawaiian accent. His daughters and nieces sang Hawaiian Christmas carols and played guitar.

And all through the Christmas season, you could hear the Beamer Brothers or the Brothers Cazimero sing songs on the radio. After becoming associated with the Hawaiian culture, I used to cringe whenever Bing Crosby would come on the radio singing his popular music sanitized version of "Mele Kalikimaka." Hawaii is a very multicultural society now.

It's history is very similar to the Vancouver area. Similarly visited by Captain Cook, and subjugated by British traders and missionaries, the native populations were nearly wiped out by measles and other viruses, quickly becoming the minority, in a white dominated settlements. I learned all about the Hawaiian independence movment, very similar to the Native Land Claim settlements in BC - sometimes they were peaceful, and sometimes they were occupational protests.

In the late 1970's and early 1980's, Honolulu felt more like home to me because there was a healthy mix of Asians, Caucasians and local Hawaiians, everywhere - all living in relative peace. On the television news shows there were newscasters of colour..

.