Interesting facts about Hawaii Created by Debra Bokur

Interesting facts about Hawaiʻi Created by Debra Bokur slides will automatically advance after several seconds

The word Hawaiʻi is derived from the Proto-Polynesian word “hawaiki, ” which translates to “place of the gods” or “homeland. ”

The small backwards-facing apostrophe used in native Hawaiian words is not an apostrophe at all— the punctuation mark is an “okina, ” and indicates a guttural stop.

Hawaiʻi is the only US state with two official languages: Hawaiian and English.

The word Aloha means both hello and goodbye.

One of the longest words in the Hawaiian language is for its state fish, the Humuhumunukuāpuaʻa fish. If you visit, you can just call it a reef triggerfish.

There are only 12 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet.

Hawaiʻi is the only state that honors royalty. June 11 is Kameha Day, while March 26 is Prince Kuhio day; both are recognized state holidays that are celebrated with parades, music and festivals.

Hawaiʻi is the only state that’s comprised entirely of islands.

The Hawaiian Islands are the most geographically isolated island chain on Earth.

There are 137 islands that make up the Hawaiian Island archipelago. Many of these islands are quite small, and are technically islets, reefs or atolls.

Ten of the world’s 14 climate zones can be found within the Hawaiian Islands.

Billboards are outlawed throughout Hawaiʻi.

Laws stipulated that no building on the island of Kauaʻi can be taller than a palm tree.

Hawaiʻi was the first state to ban plastic bags.

Daylight Savings Time is not observed in Hawaiʻi.

There are no squirrels, hamsters, gerbils or snakes allowed in Hawaiʻi. Laws require snakes to be housed in zoos.

Hawaiʻi is rabies-free. New residents are required to quarantine any pets they bring along for extensive amounts of time.

Resident animals include a small population of wallabies. While native to Australia, the present population grew from a pair of wallabies that escaped from the Honolulu Zoo. They are occasionally seen on the island of Oʻahu in the Kalihi Valley.

Mongooses (the plural is not “mongeese”), which look something like very large weasels, were introduced to Hawaiʻi in 1883 to control rats in sugarcane fields located on Maui, Oʻahu and Molokaʻi. What the sugarcane executives failed to take into account is that mongooses are active during daylight hours, and rats are active at night. There are now very large populations of mongooses on all the islands except for Lanaʻi and Kauaʻi.

The only state in the US to grow coffee is Hawaiʻi. Known as Kona coffee, it’s grown in the Kona District of Hawaiʻi Island, formerly called The Big Island.