Talk:Mele Kalikimaka

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From article page[edit]

Strickly speaking (YOU ARE WRONG I GREW UP IN HAWAII AND THIS IS HOW WE SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS NO MATTER WHAT YOU SAY), Mele Kalikimaka is how you say Merry Christmas in Hawaii!!!! Mele Kalikimaka, is not a translation of Merry Christmas in Hawaiian. It is a way of writing Merry Christmas in English, substituting the closest letters in the 13 letter Hawaiian Alphabet and writing it in a Hawaiian "sounding" style.--Lalipop (talk) 23:19, 19 December 2007 (UTC) (Posted here by Ali'i at 15:59, 21 December 2007 (UTC). Mahalo.)[reply]

Mele means song in Hawaiian. I'm pretty sure Mele Kalikimaka means "Christmas Carol". Maybe the Haole's got it wrong? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.49.147.170 (talk) 05:42, 19 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

– Ali'i, you are correct. Mele Kalikimaka is not a translation of Merry Christmas. It is a transposing of English words to make them look Hawaiian. He pololei ʻoe! And for the use directly above me. Yes, the Hawaiian word "mele" does mean song. However, in the case of Mele Kalikimaka, the word Mele means Merry. If in doubt, please pick up a copy of the Hawaiian Dictionary, writted by [Mary Kawena Pukui] and [Samuel H. Elbert] and turn to page 481. This should clear up any confusion. So, to answer your statement that maybe Nā Haole (the haoles) got it wrong, ʻAʻole! (No!) Kea ka haku (talk) 23:46, 5 August 2010 (UTC)[reply]

R becomes L and S becomes K.
observe: MERRY CHRISTMAS > MERE KRISMAS > MELE KLISMAS > MELE KLIKMAK
then add a few vowels to make it sound better: MELE KALIKIMAKA

Mele is translated into English as "music" but it is also the Hawaiian pronounciation of the English word "merry." Now, can someone find a copy of the Bing Crosby recording? Joel Whitburn's Billboard Pop Hits Singles & Albums 1940-1954 doesn't show it. Is it possible that the recording did not make the pop charts? Rumor in Hawaii has it that "Mele Kalikimaka" was the "B Side" of "White Christmas," but Whitburn doesn't show it charting at all. Whitburn's Top Pop Albums 1955-1996has a footnote saying it was on an album that was released in 1946 but the earlier book doesn't show it. (71.22.47.232 (talk) 07:47, 8 June 2010 (UTC))[reply]

Ok, just my two cents. It has been years since I had a Wikipedia account, and honestly, I do not remember my old login information. However, Mele Kalikimaka Iā ʻOe, by Sean Naʻauao, on his Hawaiian Style Christmas album is NOT the same as the original Mele Kalilimaka as stated on the page. The songs are in fact quite different. I am going to delete that portion because it is incorrect. E ola mau loa ka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi. Kea ka haku (talk)

President Obama closed his pre-Christmas press conference in 2014 by wishing everyone "Mele Kalikimaka." Bill Jefferys (talk) 23:20, 25 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Assessment comment[edit]

The comment(s) below were originally left at Talk:Mele Kalikimaka/Comments, and are posted here for posterity. Following several discussions in past years, these subpages are now deprecated. The comments may be irrelevant or outdated; if so, please feel free to remove this section.

This article has been spammed in an attempt to sell Bing Crosby recordings.

Last edited at 18:31, 28 December 2007 (UTC). Substituted at 23:40, 29 April 2016 (UTC)

Include criticism?[edit]

Just read this article ("Is ‘Mele Kalikimaka’ Really the Thing to Say on a Bright Hawaiian Christmas Day?" by Blair Mastbaum, Atlast Obscura 8 December 2022) that describes some people's objections to the phrase "mele kalikimaka," which seems like it could be relevant to mention in this article. Then again, I haven't done any research on how prevalent those feelings are, so maybe it's not notable enough. Just figured I'd raise it here. ― biggins (talk) 21:03, 14 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I came to this page curious about this same topic. However, I just checked out the Atlas Obscura article, and it's been retracted because it seems to have fabricated all its sources: Editor’s note: This article has been retracted as it does not meet Atlas Obscura’s editorial standards. Our investigation revealed the writer fabricated interviews with multiple sources; Gary Holton, Kahikina de Silva, and Tom Scott confirmed via email that they have never been interviewed by the writer, and that quotes and other material attributed to them by the writer have been fabricated. Atlas Obscura was unable to reach Will Rodrigues. Additional details provided by the writer could not be verified.

I'm still not sure what the general opinion among native Hawaiians is about the phrase or the song, but of course it's probably quite varied. Kenahoo (talk) 16:48, 21 December 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Should we add lyrics?[edit]

Are we allowed to post lyrics on Wikipedia? It bothers me that pages don't have the lyrics.

I assume this is a site-wide thing as I haven't seen any other song pages with lyrics. Copyright related? Piequals3point14159 (talk) 02:12, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]