What's with Lahaina Noon? Twice a year, when the sun's path lines up directly over this latitude, it climbs to the exact center of the sky and — for a moment at midday — vertical objects cast almost no shadow at all. Hawaiians knew the moment as kau ka lā i ka lolo, "the sun resting on the brains," and today it's called Lahaina Noon. The name fits the town's bright, leeward shore: Lāhainā means "cruel" or "merciless sun," for the dry, sun-soaked western coast of Maui where the light is famously strong.
By the middle of the nineteenth century, Lahaina was a great whaling port. Hundreds of ships rode at anchor in its roadstead each season, and the town was a Pacific crossroads of sailors, traders, and goods from around the world. Sugar plantations later reshaped the surrounding lands, and Lahaina carried its layered history — Hawaiian royal seat, mission town, and seaport — into the modern era.
