Matariki is the Maori name for the cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades or the seven sisters. It rises in mid winter, latish May or earlyish June. To Maoris it is the start of a new year. Matariki literally means the eyes of god or tiny eyes.
The Maori new year is marked by the rise of Matariki and the sighting of the next new moon. The pre-dawn rise of Matariki can be seen in the last few days of May every year and the new year is marked at the sighting of the next new moon which occurs during June.
How is matariki celebrated Matariki is celebrated with education, remembrance and the planting of new trees and crops signalling new beginnings. Matariki was the time for new harvests, and ceremonial offerings to the land based gods Rongo, Uenuku and Whiro to ensure good crops for the coming year. It was also seen as a perfect time to learn about the land we live on and to remember whakapapa the ancestry who have passed from this world to the next and the legacy they left behind.
The Matariki star constellation was used to dictate how the coming year would be in regard to the size of the harvest, so it was very important for Maori to prepare the land as best they could in order to enable the coming year to be successful
For Maori the land that they live on is one of the most important aspects of life. Preserving their way of life depended on the treatment of the land and all things living on it, this outlook was paramount to their survival and was reflected and filtered through to many other aspects of Maori culture.
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