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Matariki
Matariki is the Maori name for the group of stars also known as the Pleiades star cluster or The Seven Sisters and what is referred to as the traditional Maori New Year. Traditionally, depending on the visibility of Matariki, the coming season's crop was thought to be predicted. The brighter the stars indicated the warmer the season would be meaning there would be a more of a crop. It was also seen as an important time for family to gather and reflect on the past and the future. Matariki has two meanings, both referring to a tiny constellation of stars; Mata Riki (Tiny Eyes) and Mata Ariki (Eyes of God). Matariki is celebrated with education, remembrance and the planting of new trees and crops signaling new beginnings. Matariki was the optimum 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 (ancestry) who have passed from this world to the next and the legacy they left behind. All Iwi (Maori Tribes) celebrate Matariki, although they may celebrate at different times. For some tribes celebrations are held when Matariki is first seen in the dawn sky, for others it is celebrated after the full moon rises, and for others the dawn of the next new moon. It consists of 7 or so bright stars but the cluster actually contains hundreds. Matariki can be found in the constellation of Taurus and every year the Sun passes through Taurus and in April/May Matariki is not visible as it is obscured by the Sun. In late may/early June, Matariki comes out in the morning sky just before sunrise in the east. As this occurs at the same time every year, people all over the world have looked to these stars to start the new year. Matariki was a tradition in Aotearoa for a long time but with colonisation it was a lost tradition.To find matariki look towards the rising Sun in early June and if you have a clear horizon you shall see a myriad of important bright stars rising up. Matariki, a faint cluster of stars that can be hard to see unless you have a clear, dark sky. The Pleiades is a very useful star cluster for astronomers as it is an example of a very young cluster of stars, only 100 million years old (compare this to our Sun which is a star that is 4.5 Billion years old). So we can study these stars to find out about how stars evolve, live and eventually die. It is interesting that we call them the seven sisters or Matariki and her six daughters. As the stars in the cluster are still close together. We can refer to them as siblings in the way that they were all born around the same time and place and they are even still living together in the same house! The individual stars of Matariki have been known as: Matariki, Waiti, Waita, Ururangi, tupuanuku, tupuarangi and Waipunarangi. Some people have reported seeing more than 7 stars in the cluster. In factthere are up to 500 stars in this cluster.
