The Government today announced the dates for the next 30 years of Matariki public holidays, the first of which will fall on June 24 next year.
The announcement comes on the first day of Matariki - the Māori new year.
The exact date of New Zealand’s newest public holiday - the country’s first new holiday since 1930 - will move around based on the lunar calendar.
Seven Sharp reporter Te Rauhiringa Krystal-Lee Brown spoke to Matariki Advisory Committee chairman Dr Rangi Matamua, who explained the star cluster’s appearance is “connected to some cultures around harvest, the passing of the dead or remembering the dead”.
“It's associated with planting and here in Aotearoa, it just happens to rise in the morning sky before the sun in the middle of winter and I think that’s a major maker for many iwi of the beginning of the new year,” he said.
While the Matariki cluster is made up of several hundred stars, only a handful are visible to the naked eye.
The central star in the cluster is Matariki, which is connected to wellbeing and is known to have the ability to heal.
Her husband is the Antaaries, or Rehua, and they have eight children which make up the other stars in the group.
The eldest of the children is Pōhutukawa, who guides those we have lost across the night sky.
“All of these stars have their own personas, their own unique attributes and functions - just like people,” Matamua explained.
“But during Matariki, we cluster together and rise as one, and that's the intent matariki ahunga nui Matariki that brings all sorts of people together to celebrate as one.”
To find out more about Matariki, watch the full explainer in the video above.
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