Post #221863 by christiki295 on Mon, Mar 20, 2006 12:14 AM

May be the hula, but now the hula seems to be more of a marketing tool for tourism and, to a lesser extent, as well as a way of nuturing the Hawaiian heritage in halaus both in the Islands as well as here on the mainland.

However, tiki torches appear to be a direct link.

Fire torches were historically associated with the Goddess Pele and were considered to be a symbol of fertilization. (Beckwith, Hawaiian Mythology, pg. 41)

The fertilization symbolism nicely fits into the tiki as the first man and/or phallic symbol.

In Michner's Hawaii, Abner Hale is "drawn like a fish towards the torches," where a ceremony where the fertility ceremony, presided over by the Kane tiki statute, is underway.

Tiki torches were an integral part of tiki design, along wihth the A-frame, and at some on-going tiki bars, like Drift, or hotels, like Humphrey's Half Moon bay, remain an important part of the entrance.

The phrase "tiki" is now most commonly affiliated with tiki torches, far more than the reference to the tiki (or moai) symbol. The phrase tiki torch may even be more widely known by lay people than tiki cocktails, tiki mugs or tiki bars, although happily that is changing.