Aloha

Uncommon card · No. 196511

Aloha (, ə-LOH-hah, Hawaiian: [ə.ˈlo.hə]) is the Hawaiian word for love, affection, peace, compassion, and mercy. It can also be used to welcome or bid farewell to someone. It has a deeper cultural and spiritual significance for native Hawaiians, who use the term to define a force that holds together existence. Aloha is also considered central to the traditional Hawaiian practice of hoʻoponopono. The word is found in all Polynesian languages and always with the same basic meaning of "love, compassion, sympathy, kindness." Its use in Hawaii has a seriousness lacking in the Tahitian and Samoan meanings. Mary Kawena Pukui wrote that the "first expression" of aloha was between a parent and child. Lorrin Andrews wrote the first Hawaiian dictionary, called A Dictionary of the Hawaiian Language. In it, he describes aloha as "A word expressing different feelings: love, affection, gratitude, kindness, pity, compassion, grief, the modern common salutation at meeting; parting". Mary Kawena Pukui and...

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