Celebrate Matariki LET THE MAGIC BEGIN

Whether you're looking skyward in the quiet dark, sitting around a table with your family or taking a moment to reflect, enjoy it and reconnect

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Each winter, as darkness lingers and the air turns crisp, a small cluster of stars appears low on the northeast horizon just before dawn. This is Matariki – known globally as the Pleiades – whose rising marks the Māori New Year: a time to honour those who have passed, reflect on the past seasons and prepare for the year ahead.

Matariki is the Māori name for this cluster, which returns to our skies in midwinter.

In te ao Māori (the Māori worldview), its reappearance signals the start of the Māori lunar calendar. Its full name, Ngā Mata o te Ariki Tāwhirimātea, means “the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea” – referring to the story in which Tāwhirimātea, grieving the separation of his parents Ranginui (sky father) and Papatūānuku (earth mother), casts his eyes into the heavens.

Traditionally, Matariki also marked a natural pause in the agricultural calendar – a moment when the harvest was gathered and the whenua (land) was left to rest.

What does Matariki mean today?