Twisting, or the new moon
Hilo is the first night of the new moon in the Hawaiian lunar calendar, and it is also the verb to twist or braid — as a cord is twisted. Both readings are offered for the town, and the crescent shape of Hilo Bay makes the lunar one attractive.
The name also belongs to a navigator in Polynesian tradition said to have arrived and settled here.
Rain and water
Hilo receives well over a hundred inches of rain a year, which is why the windward side of the island is rainforest while Kona is desert. The town sits at the foot of Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, which wring the moisture out of the trade winds before they get any further.
Two tsunamis, in 1946 and 1960, destroyed the bayfront and killed more than two hundred people between them. The waterfront was never rebuilt — it is parkland now, deliberately left empty.
Merrie Monarch
Hilo hosts the Merrie Monarch Festival each spring, the most important hula competition in the world, named for King Kalākaua.