Hello bloggers,
Matariki happens in winter of NZ. It is around the month of late May or early June, and is there to signal the Maori new year! Here is a story of how people believed the stars appeared.
Once upon a time there was an adventurous person named Metai who knew how to do magic because of his koroua named Te Rawhara. His 7 older brothers were the most handsome people in the village, and went hunting one day for food when they heard flattering singing. They followed the sound and saw beautiful woman with long golden hair and faces which looked like stars, and the brothers fell for them and took them back to the village. Metai warned them that they could do harm, but the brothers didn't notice and got seafood for them and stopped hunting, and one day they stopped eating just for their wives.
They grew skinny and ugly, and Metai grew very suspicious so he told his brother to come early from fishing, but none of the brothers wives were there. Metai found out that they turned into birds, so Metai turned into a bird and followed them to hear their plan of starving their husbands to death. Metai told his brother to catch them in a net and throw them far away, but the heaven fell in love too, so every year on Matariki he allowed the woman to shine.
I hope you've enjoyed reading my blog post about the Seven Sisters. Thank you for coming to my blog. Please give me feedback or if you have any questions, please ask. When is your countries new year? Tell me in the comments.
BYE!!!
Hi Gargee,
ReplyDeleteIt's Leslie here, reading your blog from my home in Canada as a member of the Summer Learning Journey team. Brrr.... it's winter here right now and so our yard is covered in snow. The temperature was -20 C. this morning when I walked my dog, Spirit. I had to put covers on her paws so that they wouldn't freeze while we were walking. That's cold!!
I think your story summary is very well done!! You've captured the essence of it and your writing style is excellent. Good for you!! I think that you must be a very capable student in your class.
Did you know about the Matariki star cluster before participating in this program? Do you ever go out at night to study the stars?
My husband is an outdoor educator and he's spent a lot of time becoming familiar with the stars and planets that appear in our sky over the northern hemisphere. We see different constellations than you do in New Zealand, at different times. Isn't it amazing that we can all live on the same planet and yet have such different experiences, including what we see in the sky at night??!!
You've asked when our New Years is and the answer is January 1st. There are always big festivities across the country on December 31st which is New Year's Eve. That being said, our school year starts in early September so, in many ways, some of us feel that the beginning of September is more of the start to our 'year' than January is. Interesting....
I'm enjoying reading your blog. I hope you're enjoying the activities, Gargee. You're doing a wonderful job of them!
Cheers,
Leslie