808 Gracie Fighter STRENGTHconditioning crew has taken on the Makahiki Challenge Saturday March 9, 2013.
In ancient Hawaii, Makahiki was a festival beginning about the middle of October and lasting roughly four months. It was filled with sports and religious festivities, and at this time war was kapu (prohibited.) Makahiki celebrated harvest and the Hawaiian god associated with rain, lono. The mark of the beginning of Makahiki was the site of the Pleiades constellation seen in late October or early November.
During Makahiki, the people paid taxes to the chiefs. The symbol still associated with Makahiki, observed as the lono figure, is a staff with a crossbar that held a white sheet of kapa (Hawaiian cloth). It was carried around the island and stopped at each ahupua’a (land division) to collect the taxes of the people. After this process was complete, the community gathered to celebrate. Farming stopped and feasting and competitive games began. Athletes, chiefs, and commoners competed in games that included boxing, ‘ulu maika (similar to bowling), foot races, javelin throwing, and other contests including intellectual challenges.
2013’s Makahiki Challenge is located at a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch, spread from the steep mountain cliffs to the sparkling sea. Located on the eastside of Oʻahu. The ranch terrain varies from dense rainforest to broad open valleys and from beautiful white sand beaches to verdant cliff faces. If the views look familiar, that’s because Kualoa has been the site of many television shows and Hollywood films such as Jurassic Park, Windtalkers, Pearl Harbor, Godzilla, Tears of the Sun and 50 First Dates. TV shows including the old and new Hawaii Five-O, Magnum P.I. and LOST.
808 Gracie Fighters Ohana celebrated this accomplishment with a impromptu Harlem Shake
Gracie Fighter Hawaii 