Q 01/05

Which Hawaiian king broke the eating kapu in 1819 by dining with women, paving the way for luaus?

A) Kamehameha I

B) Kamehameha II

C) Kamehameha III

D) Lunalilo

Answer · why

B) Kamehameha II

Born Liholiho, he was pressured into the meal by his mother Keōpūolani and the powerful queen Kaʻahumanu after two days of drifting in his canoe.

Q 02/05

What is the name of Hawaii's 1819 taboo-breaking that let women eat forbidden foods and dine with men?

A) Makahiki

B) Hoʻokupu

C) Kapu Kai

D) ʻAi Noa

Answer · why

D) ʻAi Noa

The name literally means 'free eating'; messengers were sent across the islands to announce that the kapu had fallen.

Q 03/05

The word lūʻau itself is the Hawaiian name for what?

A) Roast pig

B) A feast mat

C) A drinking gourd

D) Taro leaves

Answer · why

D) Taro leaves

The feast took its name from a stew of young taro tops cooked with coconut milk and octopus or chicken; the older words for the party were pāʻina and ...

Q 04/05

Under the Hawaiian kapu system, which food was forbidden to women as the body form of the god Lono?

A) Octopus

B) Breadfruit

C) Pork

D) Sea salt

Answer · why

C) Pork

Most bananas (Kanaloa) and coconuts were off-limits too, so the first luau was as much a political statement as a meal.

Q 05/05

Before 'lūʻau' became the everyday word, a large Hawaiian feast was called what?

A) ʻAhaʻaina

B) Kanikapila

C) Hukilau

D) Hoʻolauleʻa

Answer · why

A) ʻAhaʻaina

Smaller dinners were pāʻina; the name lūʻau is documented in print from at least 1856, in a report on a royal wedding celebration.