Community

If there’s one thing that Hawaiians have, it’s a sense of community. The locals call it Aloha Spirit, and it really is a way of life that many live their lives by. Aloha menas ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ but it’s so much more than that. The deeper meaning of aloha is spelled out in Hawaii’s Aloha Spirit law. Hawaii’s citizens, visitors, and government officials alike are expected to live and act in accordance to this principle, but what does the ‘aloha spirit’ mean?

Inspired by Maui elder and linguist Pilahi Paki’s impassioned speech to community leaders, the law (Hawaii Revised Statutes, section 5-7.5) was passed in 1986 and defines aloha as an acronym:


 * “Akahai, meaning kindness, to be expressed with tenderness;
 * Lōkahi, meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony;
 * ʻOluʻolu, meaning agreeable, to be expressed with pleasantness;
 * Haʻahaʻa, meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty;
 * Ahonui, meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance.”

The people of Hawai’i live aloha. It causes strangers to be friendly, smiling and waving to each other, and everybody to try to be their best version of themselves at all times.

This has allowed the people of Hawai’i to maintain a true sense of community that doesn’t rely on the commercial grid. People want to support local businesses, they want to see their neighbors fed, and they want everyone’s children to grow up safe and healthy.