What is Matariki?

- An explanation of the term Matariki including where, when and how and why and  it is celebrated. Also who celebrates Matariki. 

Matariki

A New Year

Matariki Acknowledges Celebration, Futility and Remembrance. The cluster of stars begins the Maori New Year. It was used for hints to plant crops. In traditional times they would have big celebrations and fly kites to make connections to the heavens, the sky.

In late May or early June a cluster of stars can be see on the North-Eastern Horizon. Thus beginning the Maori New year. This year, on the 18th of June, kites will be flown, connections to the heavens, and all night we will be gazing upon the tail of the milky way.

There are many legends of how the cluster of stars came to be. One of them being, The God of Wind tears out his eyes and hurled them into the heavens, Matariki being his eyes. In Greece, they call them the Pleiades.

Big celebrations were popular until the 1940's. All over Aotearoa Maori (in the 19th and 20th century) and Europeans would acknowledge the new year. Before the arrival of the Europeans, they would watch the "Eyes of God" for hints to planting crops. If the stars were bright, it meant that there was going to be a short winter and the Maori would start planting in September. But if the stars were hazy, they would put the planting off for October. They could measure the seasons with this constellation.

Matariki not only begins a new year, but a new season. The time when the gods give the hints to a happy life. 

References

http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/classroom/matariki-maori-new-year

http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/matariki-maori-new-year/page-1