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Bring along your dinner and enjoy our space with your family and community!

What is Matariki?

This year, New Zealand celebrates Matariki on 28 June.

The date of the public holiday varies, as it is based on the nearest Friday to the Tangaroa lunar period during the lunar month of Pipiri.

Matariki is the Māori name for a cluster of stars that can be seen during midwinter. For many Māori, it signals the start of a new year.

Matariki is an abbreviation of ‘Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea (‘The eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea’) and refers to a large cluster of stars, known in some European traditions as the Pleiades.

Traditionally, Matariki was a time to acknowledge the dead and to release their spirits to become stars. It was also a time to reflect, to be thankful to the gods for the harvest, to feast and to share the bounty of the harvest with family and friends.

How to spot Matariki

Matariki is found low on the horizon in the northeast of the sky and is easiest to spot between 5.30am and 6.30am.

First find Tautoru (known as the bottom three stars of ‘the pot’, or Orion’s Belt). Above the Tautoru is a bright star called Puanga.

To find Matariki, look to the left of Tautoru (the pot), find the bright orange star, Taumata-kuku (Aldebaran). Follow an imaginary line from Tautoru, across to Taumata-kuku and keep going until you hit a cluster of stars. That cluster is Matariki.

Also watch this video from Te Papa to spot the cluster using the Southern Cross.

-Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand.

Learn More Here

(Thanks Community Networks Wellington for this excellent explanation)