Mele Kalikimaka
December 7, 2009 by Da Small Coconut
Filed under Culture, History
Mele Kalikimaka is a transliteration of Merry Christmas. The Hawaiian language has 13 sounds and 13 alphabets. We won’t go into the process of analyzing how “Merry Christmas” got to “Mele Kalikimaka” but as a simple example the Hawaiian language does not have the letter “R” so “L” is its subtitute and the “li” becomes “le”. Thus, Merry becomes Mele.
The song, Mele Kalikimaka, was written by 1949 by Robert Alex Anderson. One of the earlier recordings was by Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters in 1950.
It’s a favorite song of many islanders and is often sung by many groups performing at the malls and other public and private places.