Haleakala- Polynesian LocationLocation · Landmark"House of the Sun"

The Snaring of the Sun

The sun raced across the sky so fast that Hina could not dry her kapa cloth before dark. In the Hawaiian tradition recorded by Abraham Fornander and Martha Beckwith, she told Māui the days were too short, and Māui decided to fix the problem at its source.

He braided ropes from coconut fiber and climbed Haleakalā, the immense volcanic crater on the island that bears his name. At the summit, above the clouds, he waited where the sun rose each morning over the crater's rim. As the first rays crept over the edge, Māui lassoed them one by one. He trapped the sun and beat it with his jawbone weapon until it agreed to travel slowly for part of the year. The days lengthened. Hina's cloth dried in the sun.

The Crater at Dawn

The summit of Haleakalā still faces the sunrise. Each morning the sun appears to climb directly out of the crater, as though rising from the house Māui built for it with rope and bone.