Explore the haunted history of Kawaiaha’o Church with US Ghost Adventures. Discover the spooky side of the sunny isles on a Honolulu ghost tour.
Fragrant, tropical perfume wafts through the air. Everywhere you step, your feet crunch on fallen ti leaves. You hear the waves crashing upon the shore in the distance. Further on, you begin to hear thunderous marching…
The marching is coming from the Kawaiaha’o Church and Cemetery. It’s the sound of the night marchers descending from the hills.
You had better drop to the ground and bow your head, as local custom commands. Or else meet a fate worse than the marchers themselves…
Welcome to Honolulu, the islands of white sand, crystal-clear water, and world-famous seafood. Welcome also to a land where the living mingles with the dead, where centuries of bloody history lie buried under just a few feet of cement and asphalt.
Every time you cut the earth, goes one ancient Hawaiian saying, you cut the dead. And nowhere do the vengeful spirits come to life more than the historic Kawaiaha’o Congregational Church on Punchbowl Road, just a few short steps from the infamously haunted Iolani Palace.
Kawaiaha’o is known as Hawaii’s “Mother Church.” It’s the first and longest-standing Christian Church founded on any of the islands. When missionaries landed in Honolulu in the 1810s, King Kamehameha II accepted them and ordered three Mission Houses built around a central chapel where they could practice their faith.
But when they broke ground in the 1830s to build the chapel, they didn’t realize the ground housed hundreds of souls at rest. Something awoke that day, something angry that still takes its vengeance on visitors to Kawaiaha’o.
If you visit Kawaiaha’o, sit beneath the breadfruit trees and look up, and they’ll show you what they’ve seen for hundreds of years. Local lore has it that the breadfruit trees surrounding the church have witnessed brutality at the hands of missionaries, barbarism from the occupying American forces of the late 19th century, and acts of violence Hawaiians committed against other Hawaiians. And they remember it all.
Church workers have heard wind whipping through the graveyard like a scream and have seen visions of young maidens wandering the rows of gravestones to leave hibiscus on the graves of former lovers. The infamous stomping of the night marchers is enough to make anyone’s hair rise.
Such spooky sightings are so common that the local police joke about how often they get calls from Kawaiaha’o.
Kawaiaha’o is infamous for the night marchers, dead Hawaiian chiefs who descend from the mountains on moonless nights. These ghostly armies march to the beach where they hold drum circles, banging and chanting. Folks all around the island can hear them, but few have seen them.
Locals say that if you happen to be one of the unlucky ones to see them, you must bow your head in deference as they pass. Otherwise, they’ll collect it and attach it to their belts, a trophy from battle.
Honolulu is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. If you’re a dedicated ghost hunter, rejoice in the fact that you can drink daiquiris by the beach in the sunlight and chase the spirits of the dead by moonlight. US Ghost Adventures’ Honolulu ghost tour will show you the dark side of the sunny isles.
Since 2013, US Ghost Adventures has offered entertaining, historic, and authentic ghost tours of America’s most haunted cities. We deliver fun yet honest accounts of hauntings across the nation for curious people of all ages. Our ghost stories are based on historical research, but that doesn’t mean they won’t send a chill down your spine.
This video gives you a small taste of what you might experience on your ghost tour — subscribe to our YouTube Channel for more.
US Ghost Adventures also offers virtual tours, a self-guided mobile app, and an Alexa voice app.
