Mele (Hawaiian term)

Mele are special chants, songs, or poems that come from the Hawaiian language. This word is often used in the titles of songs and songbooks. One famous example is "He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi", written in 1866 by Liliʻuokalani as a national anthem for Hawaii.

Mele can be used by itself or combined with other words, like "Mele Hula," which is a chant that goes with dancing. It can act as a noun, like saying "this chant," or as a verb meaning "to chant" or "to sing."

Many recordings of Hawaiian chants and songs were collected by a researcher named Helen Heffron Roberts between 1923 and 1924. These are kept at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu and are listed under a special category called the "Mele Index." The Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa also teaches classes about mele.