About Hawaii’s Night Marchers: A History of the Huaka’i Pō by Robert Lopaka Kapanui and Tanya Kapanui
The very idea of the Night Marchers tends to bring forth a level of curiosity and fear that surpasses nearly all other Hawaiian legends. Native Hawaiians and non-Hawaiians have witnessed the ghostly procession for over a hundred years, but the same question always arises: “Who are the night marchers?”
Hawaii’s legendary night marchers are processions of spirits walking along predetermined paths on certain nights of the month and continuing their duties in death, as they did in life. The lore states that if a person is caught in the path of the night marchers, it would mean imminent death for the unaware observer unless they follow a strict protocol.
As “Hawaii’s Ghost Guy,” Lopaka Kapanui has researched and collected hundreds of ghost stories from around the island state. He knew the legend of the night marchers but continued to see misinformation shared far and wide. So with his wife, Tanya Kapanui, the couple compiled the information they’ve learned into one concise account.
The beginning of the manuscript explores the legend as told by Hawaiian scholars and explains the importance of processions in ancient Hawaii. The ali‘i of bygone days were considered sacred and could not be looked upon by commoners. Indeed, if even a commoner’s shadow were to fall upon the sacred chief, it would mean immediate death for the unfortunate person. Therefore, these ali‘i, having compassion for their people, tried to travel most often at night in their sacred procession to avoid interrupting the commoners’ daily activities and risking their lives unnecessarily. In other ceremonial processions, participants must follow a strict protocol to avoid the gods’ displeasure and ensure the ceremony they are participating in is successful. The slightest mistake by anyone in the procession was often enough to break the sacred kapu and, as such, would sentence the kapu breaker to death.
The manuscript then describes ghosts and hauntings from a paranormal perspective, beginning with the establishment of the Society for Psychical Research in 1882. Founded by a group of professors, classical scholars, physicists, philosophers, and mathematicians, the SPR intended to investigate mesmeric, psychical, and spiritualist phenomena using purely scientific methods. Psychical research later became known as parapsychology, the study of psychic or psi phenomena. After nearly 140 years of studying reported ghost and psi phenomena around the world, researchers have given different definitions to the words ‘haunting’ and ‘apparition.’ Briefly, a mere ‘haunting’ is location-based and is like a visual recorder playing over and over again in a loop, like a movie stuck on repeat. The concept of an ‘apparition’ is directly related to the idea of life after death. One can think of an apparition as the personality or consciousness surviving the death of the body, and it is capable of interacting with the living. Through dozens of experience-centered narratives, we learn that Hawaii’s night marcher phenomenon differs depending on the particular march, which would categorize them as both ‘hauntings’ and ‘apparitions,’ depending on when the procession was seen and what effects they had on the witnesses.
The most significant portion of the manuscript describes the personal experiences of witnesses to the night marchers on six of the major Hawaiian islands. While people from different walks of life have shared their stories, the reader will see similarities in several tales. The Kapanuis explain what the Hawaiian moon phases have to do with the nightly processions and how to avoid being caught in the night marchers’ path.
The final chapter of the manuscript describes other spectral marches from around the world, including the continental U.S., Japan, Nepal, India, Europe, Switzerland, and the Iberian Peninsula. Of all the ghostly processions researched, the Kapanuis find that La Santa Compaña from the Iberian region seems to be the most similar to the phenomenon of Hawaii’s Night Marchers.
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Author Bio:
Best known as “Hawaii’s Ghost Guy,” Master Storyteller Lopaka Kapanui, has been scaring people and sharing Hawaii’s stories for more than twenty-five years. A native Hawaiian born and raised on O‘ahu and spending his childhood vacations on Hawai‘i Island and Maui, Lopaka learned about his family’s history, customs and protocol, which were passed down to him in the traditional Hawaiian way, through mo‘olelo, from mouth to ear, sitting at the foot of his Mother and his Aunty as they related the lessons to him. He learned the significance of the proper prayers to offer in ceremonial blessings, to enter or leave a sacred place, to ask for protection or forgiveness, or before gathering greenery in depths of a Hawaiian forest, and the importance of intent. As a Master Storyteller, Lopaka has received a special citation from the Hawai‘i State Legislature in 2020 for perpetuating and celebrating local culture, history, language, and folklore through storytelling and knowledge of these Islands’ history and legends.
Born in Denver, Colorado and raised in a military family, Tanya Kapanui had the privilege of living in Colorado, Texas, and Germany before making Hawai‘i, where her parents were born and raised, her home for the last thirty years. As a lifelong horror aficionado, Tanya’s interest in the supernatural was established at a very young age, but it wasn’t until she was older that her interests expanded to native legends like the Filipino aswang and the Hawaiian mo‘o. With her husband, Robert Lopaka Kapanui, she runs their ghost tour business, Mysteries of Hawai‘i. When she’s not reading, or researching hauntings and ghost stories, Tanya can be found spending time with their amazing grandchildren.