Folklore in Hawaii in modern times is a mixture of various aspects of Hawaiian mythology and various urban legends that have been passed on regarding various places in the Hawaiian islands. The following is a partial list of some of these legends.
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According to Hawaiian legend, night marchers (huaka‘i po in Hawaiian) are ghosts of ancient warriors. They supposedly roam large sections of the island chain, and can be seen by groups of torches. They can usually be found in areas that were once large battlefields (the Nuuanu Pali on the island of Oahu is a good example.) Legend has it that if you look a night marcher straight in the eye, you will be forced to walk among them for eternity, but if you have a relative taken by them, you will be spared. Hawaiians say that in the presence of night marchers, one should lie down on their stomach, face down to avoid eye contact, stay quiet, breathe shallowly, and don’t move. Some say that they may nudge you to provoke a reaction so they can take you. Moanalua Gardens is one of the many places the Night Marchers are said to roam.
Local folklore on the island of Oahu says that one should never carry pork over the Pali Highway connecting Honolulu and Windward Oahu. The stories vary, but the classic legend is that if one carries pork of any kind over the old Pali road (not the modern pali highway) by automobile, the automobile would stop at a certain point on the way and not re-start until the pork is removed from the vehicle.
This legend has its roots in ancient Hawaiian mythology. According to legend, the Hawaiian volcano goddess Pele and the demigod Kamapua‘a (a half-man-half-pig) had a turbulent relationship, and the two agreed not to visit each other. If one takes pork over the Pali, the legend goes, one is symbolically taking a piece of Kamapua‘a from one side to the other, and it is said that Pele would stop that from happening.
Morgan's Corner refers to two places on Oahu; one on the Nuuanu Pali Drive leading into Nuuanu valley above downtown Honolulu, and one in Windward Oahu below the Nuuanu Pali. It is said that the apparent spirit that haunts these places are in reference to the murder of Therese Wilder, whose residence was located on the Nuuanu Pali road in 1948. However, both of these places are connected to urban legends.
The story states that a girl named Brittani Lochmann from the Morgan's residence hanged herself on the tree at the end of the road. She was lost for a couple of days and by the time she was found, her head had severed itself from her body, leaving her head hanging by the rope alone. Her head and her body were never re-attached at burial, leaving her to forever roam the Nuuanu Pali Drive. It is said that fireballs can be seen behind boulders here, and it is also said that if you sit under the tree and look up you will see a girl hanging from the branches. If you're in a car you would see a big black figure sitting on the tree above you. The road is closed to cars but you can hike or ride a bike up the trail leading to the residence.
You can apparently hear a spectre/banshee screaming while walking along the path.Paradise Park is the never discarded name of the bird show/exhibit that was located there in the past. it was abandoned for an unknown reason. if one goes to the side of the parking lot you will see the overgrown ruins of a nursery. behind this is a covered walkway twisting its way through dilapitated cages and building, some still bearing signs telling what kind of bird was housed there. to side of these buildings is a small hut with a statuette of the virgin mary, and a Portugese stone oven. there is also a Japanese pagoda. there are no records of cultural exhibits at paradise park, so the reason of these buildings remains a mystery. not ghosts of the spectre sort haunt here, but those that lurk in ones memory.
At one time, the land that is now subdivisions in Waialae and Kahala Mall in eastern Honolulu were once the site of a graveyard. Since that time, two known events have occurred there.
Across the street from Kahala Mall is a graveyard. It is said that if you drive past the remaining portion of this graveyard with your windows open, you will feel somebody else in the car, usually a child. But when you look at that somebody else in your back seat they are not there. Probably a take on the vanishing hitchhiker. When you whistle at night and you passed the graveyard,the girl would come.
The story of the green lady is that of a woman who would visit the gulch of Wahiawa, which also contains the botanical gardens of Wahiawa, with her children. One day while visiting one of her children became lost and was never found. The story goes that she still wanders the gulch looking for her child, or children, and will take any child that she comes across in the gulch. There have been several reports of seeing a green woman covered in moss or mold wandering the gulch. Others say that the green woman closely resembles that of a Japanese mythological creature called the kappa. This creature is said to resemble a turtle-like humanoid that steals children to feast upon. The last known sighting was said to have happened in the mid to late 1980s. In modern times, children and teenagers dare each other to run across the bridge that runs over the gulch at night. Most speculators say that this story was made up to keep children from wandering into the gulch by themselves.