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Matariki
In Māori culture, Matariki is the Pleiades star cluster and a celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. The rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar.
Historically, Matariki was usually celebrated for a period of days during the last quarter of the moon of the lunar month Pipiri (around June). The ceremony involved viewing the individual stars for forecasts of the year to come, mourning the deceased of the past year, and making an offering of food to replenish the stars. Some Māori use the rise of Puanga (Rigel) or other stars to mark the new year.
Celebration of Matariki declined during the 20th century, but beginning in the early 1990s it underwent a revival. Matariki was first celebrated as an official public holiday in New Zealand on 24 June 2022.
Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea, "the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea". According to Māori tradition, Tāwhirimātea, the god of wind and weather, was enraged by the separation of heaven and earth – his parents, Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Defeated in battle by his brother, Tāwhirimātea fled to the sky to live with Ranginui, but in his anger he first plucked out his eyes as a gesture of contempt towards his siblings, and flung them into the sky, where they remain, stuck to his father's chest. In Māori tradition the unpredictability of the winds is blamed on Tāwhirimātea's blindness.
The word Matariki is the name of both the star cluster and one of the stars within it. Other terms for the cluster as a whole include Te Tautari-nui-o-Matariki ("Matariki fixed in the heavens") and Te Huihui o Matariki ("the assembly of Matariki").
Matariki is sometimes incorrectly translated as mata riki ("little eyes"), a mistake originating in the work of Elsdon Best and continued by others.
The word matariki or similar, referring to the Pleiades, is found in many Polynesian languages. In the Marquesas the star cluster is known as Mataiʻi or Mataʻiki, in the Cooks as Matariki, and in the Tuamotu archipelago as Mata-ariki. In some languages it has Best's meaning of 'little eyes', but in most it is a contraction of mata-ariki, meaning 'eyes of the god' or 'eyes of the chief'. In Hawaiʻi, the rising of Makaliʻi on 20 November ushers in the four-month season Makahiki, which honours Lono, the god of agriculture and fertility. In Tahiti, the year was divided into two seasons, named according to whether the Pleiades are visible after sunset: Matariʻi i nia ('Matariʻi above') and Matariʻi i raro ('Matariʻi below'). On Rapa Nui, Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season.
To the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades contained nine stars: the parents Atlas and Pleione, positioned to one side of the cluster, and their seven daughters Alcyone, Maia, Taygeta, Electra, Merope, Celaeno and Sterope.
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Matariki
In Māori culture, Matariki is the Pleiades star cluster and a celebration of its first rising in late June or early July. The rising marks the beginning of the new year in the Māori lunar calendar.
Historically, Matariki was usually celebrated for a period of days during the last quarter of the moon of the lunar month Pipiri (around June). The ceremony involved viewing the individual stars for forecasts of the year to come, mourning the deceased of the past year, and making an offering of food to replenish the stars. Some Māori use the rise of Puanga (Rigel) or other stars to mark the new year.
Celebration of Matariki declined during the 20th century, but beginning in the early 1990s it underwent a revival. Matariki was first celebrated as an official public holiday in New Zealand on 24 June 2022.
Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea, "the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea". According to Māori tradition, Tāwhirimātea, the god of wind and weather, was enraged by the separation of heaven and earth – his parents, Ranginui and Papatūānuku. Defeated in battle by his brother, Tāwhirimātea fled to the sky to live with Ranginui, but in his anger he first plucked out his eyes as a gesture of contempt towards his siblings, and flung them into the sky, where they remain, stuck to his father's chest. In Māori tradition the unpredictability of the winds is blamed on Tāwhirimātea's blindness.
The word Matariki is the name of both the star cluster and one of the stars within it. Other terms for the cluster as a whole include Te Tautari-nui-o-Matariki ("Matariki fixed in the heavens") and Te Huihui o Matariki ("the assembly of Matariki").
Matariki is sometimes incorrectly translated as mata riki ("little eyes"), a mistake originating in the work of Elsdon Best and continued by others.
The word matariki or similar, referring to the Pleiades, is found in many Polynesian languages. In the Marquesas the star cluster is known as Mataiʻi or Mataʻiki, in the Cooks as Matariki, and in the Tuamotu archipelago as Mata-ariki. In some languages it has Best's meaning of 'little eyes', but in most it is a contraction of mata-ariki, meaning 'eyes of the god' or 'eyes of the chief'. In Hawaiʻi, the rising of Makaliʻi on 20 November ushers in the four-month season Makahiki, which honours Lono, the god of agriculture and fertility. In Tahiti, the year was divided into two seasons, named according to whether the Pleiades are visible after sunset: Matariʻi i nia ('Matariʻi above') and Matariʻi i raro ('Matariʻi below'). On Rapa Nui, Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season.
To the ancient Greeks, the Pleiades contained nine stars: the parents Atlas and Pleione, positioned to one side of the cluster, and their seven daughters Alcyone, Maia, Taygeta, Electra, Merope, Celaeno and Sterope.