Matariki

The tradition & historical record

In Māori culture, Matariki (Māori pronunciation: [ˈmɐtɐɾiki]) 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. ¹

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. ¹

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. ¹

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. Many Māori sources, especially older ones, list seven stars in Matariki: Matariki herself, the central star in the cluster (the kai whakahaere or 'conductor'), and six children. The emblem of the Kīngitanga or Māori King movement, Te Paki o Matariki, includes the star Matariki flanked by three stars on each side. The six other stars are sometimes named as Matariki's daughters. It has been suggested that the idea of Matariki as a group of seven female stars was influenced by the concept of the Pleiades' "seven sisters". Others claim the near-universal tradition of recognising seven stars is based on astronomical observations made up to 100,000 years ago, maintained through oral histories in various cultures. The manuscript of Rāwiri Te Kōkau passed on to Rangi Mātāmua recognised nine stars in Matariki, adding Pōhutukawa and Hiwa-i-te-Rangi (also known just as Hiwa) to make a total of eight children, five of which were female and three male. The father of Matariki's children was Rehua, paramount chief of the heavens, identified by Māori as the star Antares. The stars of Matariki and their genders as recorded by Te Kōkau are identified with particular traits and areas of influence, also reflected in their positions in the star cluster: ¹

The star Pōhutukawa's association with the departed relates to the lone pōhutukawa tree at Te Rerenga Wairua (Cape Reinga), the departing place for the spirits of the deceased as they return to the ancestral homeland of Hawaiki. ¹

Traditional Māori culture was interwoven with astronomical knowledge, with constellations and the lunar cycle used for navigation, planting and harvesting, delineating the seasons, and marking the spawning and migration of fish. This knowledge was passed down by oral tradition, and different regions and iwi (tribes) recorded different dates, significant constellations, and traditional calendars or maramataka. The Pleiades constellation (Matariki) is visible for most of the year in New Zealand, except for approximately a month in the middle of winter. Matariki finally sets in the west in the early evening in May, and reappears just prior to sunrise in late June or early July, which begins the first month of the Māori lunar calendar, Pipiri (meaning to huddle together). All the months of the Māori calendar are indicated by this heliacal rising of a particular star on the eastern horizon just before dawn, on the night of the new moon: for example, the tenth month, Poutūterangi, is signalled by the heliacal rising of Altair. Matariki's role in signalling the start of the year means it is known as te whetū o te tau ("the star of the year"). The time in midsummer when Matariki is overhead in the night sky is referred to as te paki o Matariki, i.e. the calm weather of summer – a phrase meaning good weather and good fortune. Because of these associations with peace and calm, the second Māori king, Matutaera Tāwhiao, chose Matariki as an emblem, and the Kīngitanga newspaper was named Te Paki o Matariki. Most celebration of Matariki begins in the last quarter phase of the moon after the constellation's first appearance, during 3–4 nights known as "the nights of Tangaroa" (ngā po o Tangaroa), and finishes on the night before the new moon. ¹

There has also always been regional variation across Aotearoa, in which stars signal the start of the New Year, and what date is chosen to celebrate it. Some iwi – specifically those in the far north of Te Ika-a-Māui (the North Island), the mid-western parts of Te Ika-a-Māui around Taranaki, the Chatham Islands, and much of Te Waipounamu (South Island) – celebrate Puanga, using the rising of the brighter star Rigel (Puanga in northern Māori, Puaka in southern Māori) as the marker of the New Year, instead of Matariki. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Matariki”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Matariki is Māori New Year festival marked by rising of the star cluster Matariki (Pleiades), according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 2 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²