Giving gifts and accepting them prevails in all the cultures of the world civilization. However, the Polynesian ancestry of the Hawaiian people that had combined with several other ethnic cultures such as the British, the Irish, the Japanese, the Chinese, the Africans, etc. had resulted in a rare cultural blend that is unmatched anywhere else in the world. Gifts are not just a practice but a tradition in Hawaiian culture.
To cite an example, if an individual is invited to a party, people living elsewhere normally carry a gift item. On the other hand, Hawaiians carry a home-made food item as their gift. All the dishes brought by the various guests are also shared in the party. Further, the left-over food items are carried back by the visitors to their homes, so that the house of the party remains clean of left-over food. Such a peculiar sharing nature cannot be seen anywhere else. This innate concern for others had been the backbone of the culture of Hawaiian gifts.
This natural extension of the unique Hawaiian gift culture is reflected in their bringing back gift articles after any trip or vacation away from their homes. These outstation gifts presented to friends and relatives after the trip are fondly called as ‘omiyage’, ‘makana’, and ‘oso’. They are Japanese, Hawaiian, and Samoan terms respectively for gifts brought from outside. Failure to bring such gifts can be considered as insulting the friends and relatives. Hawaiians follow this practice both ways. When they go to other places, they carry local food items or gift items to friends and relatives living in their places of visit as a mark of respect to the hospitality extended by them to the visitors. Thus, gift giving and gift taking is ingrained in Hawaiian culture.
The most popular Hawaiian gifts are tikis, tiki bars, Hawaiian tropical decor, and Hawaiian dashboard dolls. The tikis, tiki bar, the tropical décor and the dashboard doll pieces or materials are especially hand-crafted by highly trained and experienced craftsmen. The carved tikis include tiki masks of various types such as Hawaiian tiki masks, Fijian tiki masks, painted tiki masks, and bamboo tiki masks. The other unique carved tikis in Hawaiian gifts are tiki bars, tiki totems, primitive tikis, modern tikis, and tiki wall plaques.
The special Hawaiian tropical décor gift items lay emphasis on outdoor accent. They consist of items like outdoor tikis, tiki signs, ornamentally carved outdoor lanterns, architectural pots, bamboo poles, fencing, and accessories, thatches and thatch covers, tropical furniture, tropical matting, and outdoor tiki bar items. The tropical décor items also include painted reliefs, vintage frames, printed and poster gift pieces such as Hawaiian flora, hula dance, mermaids, floral images, aloha tropical signs, nautical signs, palm girls, sunset travel, romantic moonlight, and ukulele, apart from photographic tropical décor memorabilia like nostalgic photography and surfing photography.
The Hawaiian dashboard doll items are among the most popular fancy gift articles purchased by tourists visiting Hawaii. The concept of dashboard dolls of Hawaii had been taken to a higher plane, with innovative themes such as President Obama dashboard doll playing ukulele, President Obama dashboard doll going surfing, hula girl, hula girl with Muumuu wedding dress, boy in native chief outfit, life guard, pink flamingo, etc. Visitors to Hawaii purchase these dashboard doll Hawaiian gifts with great love and affection. They cherish these dolls as prized possession due to the ingenuity in the theme and the expert crafting of the dashboard doll gift items.
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