Ke Ala o Ka Mahina Hawaiian Moon Phase Calendar

When one didn’t know the answer to a question, this remark was often made in response; they were compared to kamaliʻi (children) who didn’t know the moon phases. To Hawaiians, understanding the moon phases was used in optimizing the farming, fishing, building, and various tasks they relied on, that not knowing would be considered almost ignorant.

At Hoʻokuaʻāina, we use the moon when it comes to planting; it acts as our calendar. To keep up with the demand for kalo (which we are immensely grateful for), we have been planting two patches each month. One patch we plant around the full moon and the other patch will fall somewhere in between. The planting of this second patch is determined by when we’re able to prep it and gather enough huli. The reality is that life will not wait for us. The weeds will keep growing and the nights will continue to pass us by. But the beauty of this is that it gives us an opportunity to kilo (make observations). We can compare how the kalo grows when it is planted on the full moon versus when it is not. 

The Hawaiian malama (month) is broken into three anahulu (period of 10 days). The first anahulu is named hoʻonui, this is the time when the moon is increasing in size or waxing. The second anahulu is named poepoe, this is when the moon is rounding and becomes full. The third anahulu is named hoʻēmi, this is when the moon is decreasing or waning.

Generally speaking, ʻole moons aren’t good for planting or fishing. If you look at the word itself, ʻole means without or lacking, not what you would want your kalo to be. These are great days for us to clear hau and pull weeds.

The moons we do like to plant on are anything from Hua to Māhealani. During our exchange trip to Rurutu in 2018, Uncle Viriamu also shared with us a similar practice of planting just before the full moon. Kū moons can be good for planting too. One meaning of the word kū is to stand, so it would only make sense to plant things that you want to grow tall and sit upright. Lāʻau is a general name for trees or plants, so any lāʻau moons are great for planting too.

When we first made the conscious effort to plant on the full moon a little over two years ago, what stood out the most, was how much straighter and taller the kalo stood than usual. It was as if someone had reached down and pulled it up to the sky. Perhaps just as the moon’s gravity pulls on the ocean, it also lifts the water up through the kalo plant. You don’t have to take our word for it. Test it out for yourself and make your own observations. See what the same plant looks like when planted on different moons. See which plants grow best on which moons. Let’s all challenge ourselves to learn together.