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.
Name and meaning
Matariki is the Māori name for the cluster of stars known to Western astronomers as the Pleiades in the constellation Taurus. is a shortened version of , "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 is the name of both the star cluster and one of the stars within it. Other terms for the cluster as a whole include ("Matariki fixed in the heavens") and ("the assembly of Matariki").
Matariki is sometimes incorrectly translated as ("little eyes") a mistake originating in the work of Elsdon Best and continued by others.
In other Polynesian cultures
The word matariki or similar, referring to the Pleiades, is found in many Polynesian languages. In the Marquesas the star cluster is known as Matai'i or Mata'iki, 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 Hawai'i, the rising of Makali'i in 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: Matari'i i nia (Matari'i above) and Matari'i i raro (Matari'i below). On Rapa Nui, Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season.
The nine stars
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 or 'conductor'), and six children. The emblem of the Kingitanga 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".
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:
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. Mourning the deceased is one component of the Matariki celebration.
Hiwa-i-te-rangi, also known just as Hiwa, is the youngest of Matariki's children and was considered the "wishing star": Māori would rest their hopes and desires on Hiwa, similar to "wishing upon a star", and if it appeared to shine bright and clear on the first viewing of Matariki those individual and collective wishes were likely to be answered.