Tomorrow for the third year, we’ll celebrate our very own unique national holiday. Marking Matariki on the calendar with a public holiday began in Aotearoa New Zealand three years ago – on June 24, 2022.
Maori elder sharing the stories of Matariki
During Matariki, as a country we acknowledge ‘Te Mātahi o te Tau’ or Māori New Year.
Some may wonder why the holiday dates will vary from year to year, though always occurring within June or July. The Friday dates have been set out in legislation for the next 30 years, determined by whichever Friday falls closest in accordance with the lunar calendar.
Murray Smith
The Matariki grouping of stars appear early morning like sparkling jewels in the Southern Hemisphere sky around June 21. For Māori, with the onset of winter, this season traditionally announces the new year on their lunar calendar. It’s a time to celebrate the earth, and show respect for the land, the whenua on which we live. Māori saw a connection between the stars and how successful the harvest would be in the coming season. The brighter the stars, the more productive the crop would be.
As a star cluster, Matariki is known throughout the world, seen at different times of the year. It consists of hundreds of stars and is one of the brightest clusters in the sky. Matariki is referred to in English by its ancient Greek name, ‘Pleiades’ or the Seven Sisters. In Hawaiian it is Makali’i, ‘eyes of royalty’, and in Japanese it is Subaru, meaning ‘united’ or ‘gathered together’.
Well before dawn, in 2022, on our inaugural national Matariki holiday, I stood at an east coast beach seeking out Matariki. Being one of the star clusters nearest to Earth, I hoped to find it on the northeast horizon. The skies exhibited that beautiful dark, ‘inky’ blue colour. Only six or seven stars are visible without a telescope. Looking intently, I eventually identified their twinkle amidst a backdrop of myriads of others.
Stargazing profoundly amplified my own sense of smallness within the universe’s immensity. Yet paradoxically, I felt the loving nearness of the One who designed its order, precisely sustaining the stars’ patterns with a consistency that afforded our forbears reliable navigation across oceans. He created it all and His intention is to communicate a message.
King David wrote about this in Psalm 8 of the Bible: “O Lord, our Lord, your greatness is seen in all the world. Your praise reaches up to the heavens; When I look at the skies, which you have made- at the moon and the stars, which you set in their places; what are human beings that you think of them; mere mortals, that you care for them? Yet you made them inferior only to yourself and crowned them with glory and honour. You appointed them rulers over everything you made; you placed them above all creation…”
May the message of Matariki resonate deeply with you this season – your life has significance; it matters infinitely to God.
Matariki image inspired by the Matariki stars featuring a traditional Maori meeting house under a starlit sky.
