A traditional Maori meeting house under a starlit sky. Photo: Matariki.co.nz
Tomorrow we’ll celebrate for the fourth consecutive year, our unique national holiday.
The marking of Matariki on the calendar as a public holiday back in June 2022 helped bring Matariki, or Māori New Year (‘Te Mātahi o te Tau’) to public mindfulness. Our ‘Matariki Friday holiday’ occurs in June or July – the dates vary having already been set out in legislation for several decades ahead based on whichever Friday falls closest in accord with the lunar calendar.
Murray Smith
The Matariki star cluster appears early morning like diamonds sparkling on the northeast horizon of the Southern Hemisphere sky around June 21. For Māori, the onset of winter, extending into the first half of July 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 connection between the stars and how successful the harvest would be in the coming season. The brighter the stars, the more productive the crops.
As a star cluster, Matariki is well known throughout the world, seen at different times of the year around our planet. It consists of hundreds of stars and only six or seven shine brightly enough to be visible to the naked eye. 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’.
Gazing into inky blue night-skies I marvel at the array of stars and their ordered patterns. Over centuries seafarers could count on the reliable constancy of stars guiding them across oceans. Māori and Polynesian voyagers passed on deep understanding of celestial navigation, also of ocean swells, marine activity and bird migration. Captain Cook relied on the indigenous navigational expertise of Tupaia, a Tahitian master navigator to guide HMS Endeavour through the Pacific.
‘Job’, one of the oldest books of the Bible (3000 BC), mentions Matariki, crediting God’s handiwork…“He set the stars in place – the Big Dipper and Orion, the Pleiades and the stars in the southern sky…” In Psalm 19 King David wrote, “The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies display His craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known… their message has gone throughout the earth and their words to the end of the world.”
The Bible also tells us how ‘wonders in the heavens’ often announce events of significance. We’re told Jesus the Creator placed the stars in place, determining their courses and trajectories. “Without Him nothing was made, that has been made…” (John 1:3). My sense of smallness within the universe’s immensity causes me to stand in awe of the One who having designed and created everything, now sustains times and seasons, as a means of communicating His message.
Matariki speaks, if we’ll listen – God’s infinite order displayed in creation, tells us we matter… that we’re of inestimable significance and value to Him.
Sharing the stories of Matariki
