12 of the Best Hawaiʻi Christmas Songs

Behind the Hawaiian Christmas Song 'Mele Kalikimaka'

Mele Kalikimaka: An Origin Story

“Mele Kalikimaka” is a transliteration, which is when you take a word or phrase from one language (in this case, “Merry Christmas”) and re-write it in a foreign alphabet, using the closest corresponding letters. There is no R, S, or T, in Hawaiian, and does not permit consonant clusters, so “Mele Kalikimaka” is the closest-sounding way to say “Merry Christmas” in Hawaiian. While, “mele” is a Hawaiian word, which translates as “song”, “poem”, or “chant”, that is not what it signifies in this phra