Majestic banyan tree in heart of Lahaina chronicles history

Last edited Fri Aug 11, 2023, 03:26 PM - Edit history (2)

https://www.staradvertiser.com/2023/08/10/breaking-news/majestic-banyan-tree-in-heart-of-lahaina-chronicles-history/

For generations, the banyan tree along Lahaina town’s historic Front Street served as a gathering place, its leafy branches unfurling majestically to give shade from the Hawaiian sun. By most accounts, the sprawling tree was the heart of the oceanside community — towering more than 60 feet (18 meters) and anchored by multiple trunks that span nearly an acre.

Like the town itself, its very survival is now in question, its limbs scorched by a devastating fire that has wiped away generations of history.

For 150 years, the colossal tree shaded community events, including art fairs. It shaded townsfolk and tourists alike from the Hawaiian sun, befitting for a place once called “Lele,” the Hawaiian word for “relentless sun.”…

She lives, it seems

/“Lele” does not mean relentless sun, but to leap.
Meaning from Ulukau, place names of Hawaii

Lexicology: lā-hainā. PEM: cruel sun (said to be named for droughts) was the old pronunciation of Lahaina.
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For the word itself,
[Hawaiian Dictionary (Pelekānia)]
Lahaina
Lahaina. Ancient names: Lele, Lā-hainā. Epithet: breadfruit-sheltered land of Lele, ever-burning torch not darkened by the Ka-ua-ʻula gales, ka malu ʻulu aʻo Lele, kukui ʻaʻā mau pio ʻole i ke Ka-ua-ʻula.