What is Matariki All About?

What is Matariki All About?

by Everley  

Today I'm telling you what matariki is, how I celebrate it, when it is and what you could do to celebrate next year?

Matariki is the Maori New Year and it is celebrated in late June, early July because there is a full moon and that is when you see all the star constellations including Matariki.

Matariki is celebrated because it is a time to talk about the future, tell stories about ancestors and invite family over for dinner. It helps keep Maori traditions alive.

Well I celebrate matariki by seeing family and doing matariki crafts but people celebrate matariki in different ways by having dinner with family or talking about the past and the future.

What could you do to encourage your family to celebrate Matariki 2022? I could bake star cookies, make crafts and make a special dinner. I would invite friends and family to dinner and tell stories of matariki. 

Papatuanuku and Ranginui were close together. They had six sons and they all lived in the darkness. They wanted to separate their parents apart so they could live in the light. Tumatauenga wanted to use violence. Tane-Mahuta the god of the forests and birds had a good idea that all the brothers agreed to apart from 1. Rongomatane tried to push his parents apart with no success. Then Tangaroa the god of the sea and Haumaitiketike joined him. Together they pushed and pushed with no success. Eventually Tane-Mahuta tried. He put his shoulders on his mother and pushed them apart with his feet.All the brothers were happy exept Tawhirimatea.He was so angry that he threw his eyes up into the sky and they are the stars of Matariki. That is how we got the matariki stars.

I learnt that Matariki has a cluster of 9 sisters and from earth you can only see 9 but there are more. Matariki is the Maori New Year and a time to celebrate. What will you do to celebrate Matariki next year?