Pele's Curse

Tourists have been mailing lava rocks back to Hawaii for decades, begging forgiveness from a volcano goddess — and the National Park Service still receives so many "cursed" rocks every year they have a standard process for handling them.

Pele's Curse is the belief that removing volcanic rock or sand from Hawaii brings misfortune, attributed to the anger of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. Unlike most legendary curses, this one has an unusually well-documented modern presence: Hawaii's national parks receive a steady, ongoing stream of mailed-back "cursed" rocks from tourists asking for forgiveness, decades after taking them.

⇄disputed

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Quick facts

→Pele is a genuine, significant deity in traditional Hawaiian religion and culture, long predating the modern tourist-era curse legend specifically.
→The specific "curse" belief that removing lava rock brings misfortune is generally considered a modern legend, likely originating sometime in the mid-20th century rather than ancient tradition.
→Hawaii Volcanoes National Park receives a continuous stream of mailed-back rocks and sand from tourists worldwide, often accompanied by letters describing bad luck they attribute to having taken them.
→The National Park Service has explicitly stated it does not return mailed rocks to their original locations, both due to volume and because doing so isn't standard park policy, though some independent volunteer groups have taken on returning them.

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Pele's Curse (event)

Belief that removing Hawaiian volcanic rock brings misfortune from the goddess Pele; sustained by an ongoing real phenomenon of tourists mailing rocks back.

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