It’s mid-winter in New Zealand. The air is crisper than I’ve felt it for a while, the leaves have pretty much fallen and we have had the shortest day of the year.
This week also saw the appearance of the star cluster, Matariki, (The Pleiades), which heralds the Maori New Year.
This was not a festival I had ever heard of growing up but it has been revised and reinstated and there are now celebrations being held all around New Zealand. While different tribes traditionally celebrated Matariki in their own fashion, now it is universally marked by the new moon and rising of the Matariki star cluster with festivities running from 1st June to 30th July.
Traditionally, Matariki was a time of celebration, important for navigation and the timing of the seasons. It was particularly relevant to the preparation of the ground for the upcoming growing season and offerings to the gods, and specifically, Rongo, the Maori god of cultivated food.
Only a few New Zealand schools consistently mark mid-winter and Matariki but for our boys’ school, festivals are an important part of the culture and I have two mid-winter events to attend this coming week.
On Wednesday evening, my youngest son has a lantern walk through a public garden. Imagine a waterfall and a large pond with a bridge over it and a stream running throughout. Imagine 30 or so small (3-6 year-old) children clutching a paper lantern with a candle in one hand and a parent’s hand in the other as we meander through the park in, otherwise, pitch black. We will wander past tiny grottos of handmade gnomes and crystals, we will attempt to sing (although for the children, it’s enough that they manage to walk and stay upright!) and we finish gathered together, munching on a star shaped, ginger or shortbread biscuit.
On Thursday evening, my older sons have their mid-winter festival, beginning with a shadow play performed by their teachers. After the play, the children who are between 10 and 14 gather in small groups amongst the trees at school and the youngest children, guided by their lanterns and teachers, meander from group to group and hear the older children entertain them with a song, or a poem or a tune. The 10 year-olds then follow behind the youngest to see the older children’s performances and the 11 year-olds follow them, and so on. They will finish with their classmates and a biscuit and warm drink.
The magic in these events is heart-warming and the children just seem to absorb the atmosphere; they appreciate the small snippets of light amongst the darkness, the companionship, the quiet musicality of the ’entertainment’ and especially the sharing of food at the end! (So do I.)
Do you celebrate mid-summer and mid-winter? How do schools where you live mark these seasonal events?
Sources: NZ Ministry of Culture and Heritage; Wikipedia
This is an original post to World Moms Blog by our writer and mother of three boys in New Zealand, Karyn Van Der Zwet.
The image used in this post is credited to Wikipedia images with editing from Dayne Laird (Ministry for Culture and Heritage, NZ)
Love this … all memories being made to be taken out in your heart and reviewed again …
We have a lantern evening at our local Japanese gardens, my girls love going there. I make them take a walk before sushi 😉
That sounds serene and lovely, Nicole. I am very fond of serenity.
Beautiful post, Karyn! It’s difficult to keep my kids up when it’s pitch black, but the day we try to in the US is July 4th for our nation’s Independence Day. We take them to fireworks on the beach.
The only celebration here that intertwines Native American culture is Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims and the Native Americans were said to have sat down for a big feast. It would be interesting if the schools incorporated a truly Native American celebration. Maybe it would give our children a closer connection to the people who were first here.
The beginning of the summer for us in NJ was always marked by school being out for the summer, as the last day of school is usually within a week of the solstice here.
Our summer holidays start around the same week as summer solstice here too, Jen…in December, of course!
I am intrigued that there is no incorporation of North American Indian festivals in your schools. Matariki is really the only Maori one, that I know of, being incorporated here.
in Poland each year, on a first day of Spring, kids in school would walk to a nearest river, holding previously made doll, something that looks like a scarecrow but in a girl looking version, and we would throw in in a river – it was a symbol of letting go of the Winter and inviting Spring.
Here is more details about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzanna
Schools don’t do it anymore. Too bad, it was a beautiful custom.
That sounds lovely, Ewa. I really love the mood and inter-generational connections that festivals and rituals support.
Our boys’ school has done something similar in the past, where the children have written their wishes for new things or changes on pieces of paper and burned them in the fire, during Autumn Festival. Interesting, that there are similarities between here and there!
in Poland each year, on a first day of Spring kids in school would walk to a nearest river, holding previously made doll, something that looks like a scarecrow, but in a girl looking version, and we would throw in in a river – it was a symbol of letting go of the Winter and inviting Spring.
Here is more details about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marzanna
Schools don’t do it anymore. Too bad, it was a beautiful custom.
That’s lovely Karyn. Unfortunately we don’t have anything similar in South Africa … and you’d think there should be, considering the “melting pot” of different ethnicities, traditions and cultures we’re supposed to be!