Number 5
Ranginui and Papatuanuku
Or Rangi and Papa for short.
They were the primordial parents from the Maori mythology where Rangi was the Sky Father
and Papa, the Earth mother . They were so in love with each other, they were always
in a tight embrace.
This embrace was the reason why there was only darkness at the time as the Sky and Earth
was technically mashed with each other causing no light to pass through.
Papa and Rangi had many children.
Most of them became the main gods in the Polynesian mythology.
To name a few there's Tawhiri, Tane, Tumatauenga, Rongo, Tangaroa and Haumia.
So, after some time, their children, sick of the darkness, sick of feeling cramped with
nothing to do and probably sick with how their parents were always clinging to each other,
decided to do something about it.
Well, except for Tawhiri, who just wanted their parents to be happy.
Now, the rest of the children were discussing on how to get out of the darkness.
At first Tumatauenga proposes that they should just kill the parents which of course was
too drastic, so Tane who was the most against the killing suggested to just separate them
instead.
One by one, they tried to separate their parents but failed as their embrace was crazy tight.
Then Tane tried last and with all his might, he had to crawl in between them and pried
them apart with his whole body.
Of course Papa and Rangi were very angry and sad because of this as who knows how hard
it was for them to even be together in the first place that just by being forcefully
separated like this, they couldn't get back together.
Anyways, with them apart, light came into the world and everyone lived exactly how they
wanted.
Except for Papa and Rangi being separated and Tawhiri who was very mad that their parents
were not happy.
Number 4
Lono
Lono is one of those cool gods that surf, uses the rainbow as a means of travel, married
a mortal and brought all the goods for agriculture, fertilised soil and rain for the people.
Lono is also the god of peace but there is one story tainted or even marked as the beginning
of this title.
It was all because of an incident with his mortal wife called Kaikilani.
Kaikilani was the most beautiful woman of her time especially for Lono that he gets
jealous, very jealous, like he could kill jealous and he actually did.
One day, his jealousy was overwhelming he accidentally used his godly power and struck
his wife down.
Mourning her and wandering the island, he made the Makahiki celebration where during
those times, a lot of things are prohibited which includes the decree of no wars, no fighting
and no killing especially during it.
Though, to some, the Makahiki is a festival in honor of Lono and a time to show appreciation
to the gods for their abundance in harvest.
Number 3
Pele
She is one of the best known deity from Hawaii and she is said to live in the crater of the
volcano, Kilauea.
She is the goddess of the volcano or the goddess of fire.
She can create and she can destroy seeing as how she has power over lava and fire.
Something like, lava in its molten state destroy things in its path and when it cools down
it makes new land.
She is said to have a temper but she still has a certain kindness to her.
So getting on her good side is always a good thing.
Throughout her presence, she never wanted any living sacrifices, just respect and some
food is apparently enough.
Originally, she didn't come from Hawaii but instead came from Kahiki which means out of
sight which people think is Tahiti but it could practically mean anywhere else.
The reason as to why she moved, varies from story to story.
But one of her story as to why she's in Hawaii goes like this:
Pele was a goddess that was supposed to become a water goddess as instructed by her mother.
But as she grew up, her fascination with fire overwhelmed her.
Being headstrong and have a bit of a temper, she became rebellious.
She ignored everything and played with the fires from the underworld accidentally setting
her home in Kahiki or Tahiti on fire.
Then her sister Namaka, the sea goddess used her power to quench the fire and ended up
flooding the place.
Pele was then forced to leave her home and she settled in Kilauea surround by fire that
she loves.
There are a lot of stories of Pele around, legends of her greatness and wrath.
The newest one is the belief that she would curse people who takes any natural sources
out of Hawaii as talked in my "curses from around the world" video.
Number 2
Milu
Milu is the ruler of the land of the dead or the underworld in many Polynesian mythology.
Milu's gender is pretty much unspecified as some stories says Milu is female while others,
male.
Anyways, in Hawaiian folklore there's a few different stories of him, one said he was
a chief that was banished to the underworld because of disobeying the gods and ended up
taking over the underworld while the other said he's Pele's brother and is the lord of
the spirit world.
In Maori folklore, she is one of the goddess of the underworld who likes to capture souls
with nets and later dragging them to her abode.
In Mangaian mythology, she is an ugly old woman who eats spirits of those that ends
up in the underworld by cooking them in an oven and in Mangarevan folklore, Milu is a
god of unknown gender of the night world.
I guess we could just assume that Milu takes care of the dead, either by eating them or
ruling over them.
Number 1
Maui
The most popular of the gods as his legend can be found everywhere in the Polynesian
islands.
Though it varies from region to region with some regarding him as a demi-god, some as
a full god while some as human but the base of event of his story seems to be consistent.
So he is technically the one that created the Pacific Islands, the ensnarer of the sun,
the sky pusher and even the discoverer of fire.
Now, because there are so many versions of the legends concerning Maui, for this video,
I will take one of his popular story that involves him and the sun's speed taken from
the Maori Folktale.
A long time ago, it was said that the time the sun was up was very short.
Night after night, people were complaining and discussing about this problem.
The problem of not having enough time in the mornings to do their daily duties such as
hunting or fishing or even farming.
Maui heard of this problem from his brothers and one day, he said he could actually solve
it.
Of course his brothers were like "what is this madness?" but still gave him a chance
and Maui explained that he will need a lot of flax.
I imagined him having a cheeky grin on his face when he said that with the sun slowly
rising up or should I say "quickly" rising up shining in his face.
So, they asked the women of the tribe to cut and gather as much flax as they can so that
they could make a large and strong enough net to capture the sun.
Why flax you might be thinking, its probably because flax is a fire retardant, so it burns
very slowly.
Then when the net was completed, Maui together with his brother and some other men from the
tribe went on a journey East.
Well, East to where the Sun's resting place is, you know right before it rises.
After a very long journey, they found the cave where the Sun rests and quickly started
to cover the entrance with the net they plaited and made sure its not easily seen.
Then they hid behind some clay walls they made to protect themselves from the scorching
heat the sun would produce when it wakes up.
Not soon after, a glimmer of light came from the cave, the sun was rising.
The heat from the sun seemed to get stronger and stronger, the men there were losing hope
as it got hotter and hotter.
But then, they heard Maui shouting, "Pull!
Pull the ropes as hard as you can!
Pull!!"
And so they did.
All while thinking that if they can't stop the sun now, they're all dead . So with all
their might, they pulled as hard as they can to stop the Sun from escaping.
This is when Maui proceeded to the next step of the plan.
He ran out of the protection of the dried wall, had his special axe raised high above
his head and rushed straight towards the sun.
Of course he's practically burnt by now but he went and attacked the sun with his axe.
The Sun screamed, "Don't kill me you [censored beep]" the sun was very angry, being hot headed
and all.
Then Maui reassured the sun that he wasn't trying to kill, but was there to "persuade"
the Sun from going across the sky too quickly.
Feeling bitter, the sun was like, "Tch, with this kind of injury, its not like I could
go fast anyways".
So Maui had to ask again and again until finally the sun promised to go slow.
That's when they released the net and let the sun free.
Since then, the sun stayed in the sky longer, moving slowly in the sky.