MARINE CORPS BASE HAWAII, Kaneohe Bay -- Makahiki - Explained by some to mean "the year," or more specifically "the season"; can be broken down to define a certain season, the season of new beginnings.
The word maka, or "eye," refers to the constellation of the Pleiades, and hiki is a sign of movement. Liberally translated, the word refers to the rising of the Pleiades in the heavens, corresponding with the time of the sun's turn northward, bringing warmth again to the Earth, the growth of plants and the spawning of fish - springtime.
Thousands of years ago, a festival was celebrated every year at this time in honor of the fertility god "Lono," god of cultivated food plants, not only in Hawaii but also throughout marginal Polynesian islands.
Hawaiians prayed to the god Lono to send rain and sunshine upon the growing crops, spawn to fill the fishing stations and offspring to mankind.
During the ancient Makahiki period, wars were suspended to celebrate athletic sports. According to "The Kumulipo, A Hawaiian Creation Chant," the god Lono himself inaugurated the sporting events.
"Father Lono," symbolized by a long pole with a strip of tapa and other embellishments attached, was carried about from district to district to collect taxes (auhau) in return for the use of land distributed by each overlord among his family group.