What is that uke player's hand sign

KnowsPickin

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
208
Reaction score
1
At the end of a lot of ukulele videos I see the player flash a hand sign to the camera. It looks a lot like the deaf sign for the letter "Y" with the thumb and little fingers out to the sides of the hand with the other fingers curled in. It is usually done with the palm toward the player's body and the back of the hand facing the viewer/camera.

Does this sign have a specific meaning, or is it just a generic uke equivalent of a thumbs up? Any background will be appreciated.
 
Google "shaka" means hang loose.
 
Folding your three middle fingers down while holding out your thumb and pinky, then twisting your hand around, is a strange gesture to say the least. But if you visit Hawaii, you're likely to see it a lot. The gesture, called The Shaka Sign, can be interpreted as "Hello," "Goodbye," "Have a nice day," "Take it easy," "Good luck," or, the most popular definition, "Hang loose." Unfortunately, the sign's history is a bit vague.

The oldest origin story goes back to the days when Spanish sailors first landed on the Hawaiian Islands. Unable to speak the native tongue, but trying to be friendly, the Spaniards offered to share a drink by mimicking a bottle with their hand with the gesture and tilting back their head. This became such a common greeting that the natives simply believed that's how the Spanish said hello, so they started using the sign whenever the two groups encountered one another.

Another theory, from the mid-20th Century, claims the sign was inspired by the wave of a beloved local named Hamana Kalili, who'd lost the middle fingers on one hand. There are multiple theories as to how he lost his fingers: there was a shark attack, they were blown off while using dynamite to catch fish, or perhaps the digits were lost in an accident while working on a sugar plantation. But no one knows for sure anymore.

As if the origin of the gesture isn't mysterious enough, the word Shaka isn't even Hawaiian. However, most people agree the name goes back to a local used car salesman, Lippy Espinda, who would throw up the sign at the end of popular TV commercials during the 1960s and 70s, and say, "Shacka, brah!" ("Shocker, bro!").

(From mentalfloss.com)
 
Last edited:
"The oldest origin story goes back to the days when Spanish sailors first landed on the Hawaiian Islands. Unable to speak the native tongue, but trying to be friendly, the Spaniards offered to share a drink by mimicking a bottle with their hand with the gesture and tilting back their head. This became such a common greeting that the natives simply believed that's how the Spanish said hello, so they started using the sign whenever the two groups encountered one another."

OK, that beats the socks off the used car guy story and the other one. Don't know about you, but I'm going with the drink sharing story!
 
The story I heard (from a guide on a canue tour on Oahu) is that a form of the shaka began as a navigation tool. Apparently, when a man with average size hands folds over his middle fingers and holds up his index finger and thumb so that they're parallel (imagine a shaka looking like football goal posts) and then holds his hand out at arm's length, the distance between the two upright fingers represents one degree on the horizon. Later, when missionaries settled the island, natives would use a more modern version of the shaka to indicate that they were natives.

And this, from Wikipedia: "In American Sign Language, the shaka is one of the two signs used to refer to surfing."
 
..........

:shaka:
 
I see a lot of hand signing, especially when I'm driving.....
 
...And this, from Wikipedia: "In American Sign Language, the shaka is one of the two signs used to refer to surfing."
What's the other one?
 
I see a lot of hand signing, especially when I'm driving.....
Me too....often times they are saying I am "number one" I do believe. Sometime I let them know they too are "number one"! :confused:
I did not know the name, but do now....thanks! That is a catchy name if I do say so myself!
Thanks for the education Ubulele ;)
 
Last edited:
Hey, in my house we call that one the "finger of fellowship", ya know, so the kids don't hear.
 
Top Bottom