Curses! Hawaii Cant Get Tourists to Stop Sending Back Lava

[question everything]

HAWAII VOLCANOES NATIONAL PARK— Steve Pariseau believes he can pinpoint the moment his life began falling apart: It was when he picked up a shimmering black lava rock while on vacation with his family in Hawaii. Once he got home to California, one of his sons began having behavioral problems. His marriage fell apart. His mother died.

So when he heard about “Pele’s curse”—a widespread belief that Pele, the volcano goddess of Hawaii’s Big Island, will bring bad luck to those who take lava off the islands—he decided to bring the rock back. His family’s fortunes, he said, improved right away.

Each year, hundreds of people mail, fly or hike pieces of lava back to the Big Island, hoping that by returning rocks they snatched, they will break the curse, appease the goddess and end their bad luck. Lava is shipped back from Germany, Japan and Australia. Some lava thieves return to Hawaii so they can place the lava as close as possible to where they found it.

(snip)

Like many myths, the origins of Pele’s curse are murky. Hawaiian scholars agree it has little basis in native Hawaiian religion. One popular theory holds that park rangers in the 1940s, frustrated by tourists who kept making off with pieces of lava, invented the curse.

(snip)

Much of the lava shipped back ends up in the hands of Alton Uyetake, the officer in charge at the Hilo post office on the Big Island. Sitting in his office on a recent Friday, Mr. Uyetake was surrounded by packages of lava. Though most had no return address, they often contained notes.

(snip)

And lava is only the beginning. People send black sand and green sand pilfered from beaches here. One box from Poland contained a dozen pieces of coral. The coral is put back in the ocean; the sand is brought to beaches with sand of the same color; the lava is sent to the national park to join the ever-growing pile. Then there are the store-bought items.

More..

https://www.wsj.com/articles/curses-hawaii-cant-get-tourists-to-stop-sending-back-lava-1494784924

[sarcasmo]

1. Pretty sure there was a Brady Bunch episode about this topic.

[Phoenix61]

2. Yes there was

It was a silly show but I always liked it. First tv show to show a married couple in a double bed together.

[sarcasmo]

5. Showing my age here, I think it was a 2 part episode, LOL.

[Yavin4]

7. Behind the scenes, they were all fucking each other.

Like a bad porno movie.

[Phoenix61]

11. I have no idea where you got that information

But you might want to check it again.

[Yavin4]

15. Checked it again. I'm right.

http://www.starpulse.com/the-brady-bunch-casts-shocking-secrets-revealed-not-all-goodie-goodie--1848509372.html

[Phoenix61]

17. During the show Barry and Maureen had a fling

Robert Reed, according to that article, had sex with people not on the show. That doesn't exactly play out as a cast that is jumping into bed with each other.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Way better than the actual show.

That thing was like watching fucking paint dry.

[Freethinker65]

3. Ha! That is what I was thinking about as I read the post

[Chellee]

8. It wasn't lava. It was a little tiki idol.

I'm really ashamed I know that.

[Phoenix61]

9. OMG!

You're right! I'd forgotten that.

[Chellee]

12. I wish I'd forgotten it.

I think it's burned in my memory because of the stupid spider in the bed.

[GallopingGhost]

14. A coral brooch with eight legs.

[Warren DeMontague]

23. Yes. With Vincent Price.

"No. Is Taboo!"

Yeah, should have saved that for Greg, who was busy offscreen screwing his "Mom".

[GallopingGhost]

13. You shouldn't be!

I love that episode.

Vincent Price as Professor Whitehead.

"Pick a tiki...any tiki!"

[MiniMe]

19. And Greg wore it in a surfing contest, and wiped out

Really embarrassed I know that

[Egnever]

18. First thing that jumped into my mind as well

Crazy that we remember that from a show that was on 40+ years ago.

[Quiet_Dem_Mom]

4. The Petrified Forest NP has same issue!

Right down to the people believing the lifted artifact caused a bad run of luck!

http://azdailysun.com/news/local/rocks-with-a-conscience-pile-up-at-petrified-forest/article_6f32c9cf-973b-5666-b1cf-bd65da184099.html

Someone also compiled the letters sent with the returned wood:
http://badluckhotrocks.com

[denbot]

20. I won't touch any of the pottery shards I've come across while hiking in the South West.

It's both an Apache and Navajo thing. There is a kind of taboo concerning contact with possessions of those whom have died.

[ecstatic]

6. I won't make fun of them because something similar happened to me

This "thing" that I had acquired was at the center of a string of bad luck which ended as soon as I tossed it in the trash. It was a somewhat valuable item that I could have sold, but I couldn't in good faith do that after what I had experienced. The entire ordeal lasted around 3 months. I'd advise people to follow their intuition in such matters.

[Cha]

10. I wouldn't make fun, either.. my uncle took

a piece of lave from the Volcano on the Big Island last century and something tragic happened. I don't even want to say.

But, I know if I ever visit the Big Island I will not be taking any "souvenirs".

Sorry that happened to you, ecstatic.

[GallopingGhost]

16. There's a bunch of similar stories from people

who have taken things from Civil War battlefields.

Gettysburg National Park gets stuff returned also.

[Hortensis]

21. Thanks for the laugh, QE.

Wonder how a job description might put this task. "And you would be responsible for..."