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 also known 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.
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").
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 or , in the Cooks as , and in the Tuamotu archipelago as . On Rapa Nui, Matariki heralded the New Year, and its disappearance in mid-April ended the fishing season. 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 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. This knowledge was passed down by oral tradition, and different regions and iwi recorded different dates, significant constellations, and traditional calendars or . 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.
In Māori tradition the stars Puanga and Matariki were rivals, with Puanga beautifying herself every winter, attempting to be the star beside which the sun rises and signals the New Year, but being eternally frustrated when each year the Sun rose beside Matariki.
Traditional celebration
Matariki was an occasion to mourn the deceased, celebrate the present, and prepare the ground for the coming year.
Te Rangi Huata of Ngāti Kahungunu began in 2000 an annual Matariki celebration in Hastings, which attracted 500 people, which reached 15,000 in 2001. These have included concerts, festivals of lights, the illumination of Auckland's Sky Tower, and tree planting. In 2017 Wellington City Council announced they would cancel the Sky Show fireworks held on Guy Fawkes Night for 22 years, and move them to a Matariki cultural festival from July 2018. The celebrations have taken place over the period of a week or month, anywhere from early June to late August, but increasingly coincide with the winter solstice or the traditional dates of Matariki.
In 2008 NZ Post began issuing an annual series of stamps to celebrate Matariki.
In 2024, Charles III, as King of New Zealand, released a message recognising the holiday in both English and Māori. Earlier on 30 April, President of French Polynesia Moetai Brotherson in a session with his Council of Ministers agreed to make their local counterpart as an official public holiday on 20 November in place of Internal Autonomy Day on 29 June inspired by the success of the celebrations in Aotearoa following a proposal by its Minister of Culture Eliane Tevahitua; the act would be implemented officially on 2025.
Public holiday
thumb|Fireworks in Wellington on first Matariki public holiday in 2022
A proposal to make Matariki an official public holiday in New Zealand was made by former Māori Party MP Rahui Katene's member's bill Bill/Matariki Day Bill, drawn from the ballot in June 2009. The Bill would have fixed the date of a public holiday using the new moon in June; this was later changed to the new moon of the heliacal rising of Matariki when the bill was drawn a month later and set down for introduction into Parliament. Mayor of Waitakere City Bob Harvey supported the call to make Matariki a public holiday to replace Queen's Birthday, along with the Republican Movement of Aotearoa New Zealand, which found none of New Zealand's local authorities held celebrations for Queen's Birthday but many celebrated Matariki. However, the Bill itself did not propose abolishing Queen's Birthday, and was voted down at its first reading.
As part of the National–Māori Party agreement subsequent to the 2011 New Zealand general election, both parties agreed to support a "cultural heritage bill to recognise Matariki/Puanga, and to honour the peace-making heritage established at Parihaka."
In July 2020, Te Raukura O'Connell Rapira delivered two combined petitions calling for Matariki to be made a public holiday that were signed by 30,000 people.
On 7 September 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pledged to make Matariki a public holiday if the Labour Party were re-elected in the 2020 general election. The proposed public holiday would not be implemented until 2022, during which businesses could recover from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. On 4 February 2021, Ardern announced the first date for the public holiday as 24 June 2022. Legislation to give this legal effect would be introduced during the 2021 parliamentary session.
On 2 July 2021, the day the constellation rose, Ardern announced the proposed dates of the holiday for the next 30 years, as determined by a Matariki Advisory Group drawn from iwi across the country. The date of Matariki varies because the 354-day Māori lunar calendar (with occasional intercalary months) only approximates the 365.24 day solar Gregorian solar calendar. National argued that Matariki should replace an existing public holiday instead of being added as a new holiday, to lessen the impact on businesses which is estimated to be NZ$448 million annually. The bill passed its second reading on 29 March 2022. During the debate, the National and ACT parties expressed concerns about creating a 12th public holiday; claiming that it would cost NZ$450 million and have a negative impact on businesses. The Labour, Green and Māori parties argued that the bill would establish a new Māori public holiday in the calendar and raise awareness of Māori indigenous knowledge.
The bill passed its third reading on 7 April. During the final debate, National MP Paul Goldsmith argued that Matariki should replace a previous public holiday while ACT's Small Business spokesperson Chris Baillie claimed that having a new public holiday would cost businesses NZ$453 million. The Bill's sponsor Kiritapu Allan defended Matariki, arguing that public holidays reduced employee burnout and stress while boosting hospitality and tourism. National MP Simon O'Connor suggested naming the bill a "neutral" name such as Pleiades, which prompted Crown-Māori Relations Minister Kelvin Davis to claim that the former's remarks showed National's contempt for Māori culture. The bill received royal assent on 11 April 2022.
Matariki was first observed as a public holiday on 24 June 2022, including a pre-dawn live broadcast of a hautapu ceremony. It was received positively overall by New Zealanders. Its significance to New Zealanders is also enhanced by being exclusive to New Zealand culture.
For businesses, Matariki is treated identically to most other public holidays; employees working on Matariki are required to be paid time-and-a-half and there are no restrictions on shops opening or alcohol sales. However, due to the unique cultural significance of the holiday, Māori cultural advisers and academics have warned companies against commercialising Matariki, Due to its position between King's Birthday and Labour Day, concerns were made regarding overcommercialisation of Matariki in terms of appropriating the extended public holiday as an opportunity for shopping events, such as the sale of fireworks.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Year
!Tangaroa lunar period
!Matariki public holiday
|-
|2022
|21–24 June
|24 June
|-
|2023
|10–13 July
|14 July
|-
|2024
|29 June – 2 July
|28 June
|-
|2025
|19–22 June
|20 June
|-
|2026
|8–11 July
|10 July
|-
|2027
|27–30 June
|25 June
|-
|2028
|15–18 July
|14 July
|-
|2029
|4–7 July
|6 July
|-
|2030
|23–26 June
|21 June
|-
|2031
|11–14 July
|11 July
|-
|2032
|30 June – 2 July
|2 July
|-
|2033
|20–23 June
|24 June
|-
|2034
|9–12 July
|7 July
|-
|2035
|29 June – 1 July
|29 June
|}
See also
- Matariki, a 2010 New Zealand drama film set in Ōtara, South Auckland
- Makahiki, an ancient Hawaiian New Year festival
- Matrikas, the Seven Mothers in Hindu tradition, often identified with the Krittika (Pleiades) constellation
References
External links
- Matariki at the Māori Language Commission
- Matariki Online Learning Resources from the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
- Matariki – Māori New Year in Te Ara: the Encyclopedia of New Zealand
- Matariki: Awaiting their Ascent in Tangatawhenua.com
- Matariki Festival
- The First Lunar Month (June – July) at NZ Astronomy
- Matariki Public Holiday information from the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment