In the Māori language Matariki is both the name of the Pleiades star cluster and also of the season of its first rising in late May or early June. This is a marker of the beginning of the new year. Different peoples celebrate Matariki at different times; some when Matariki rises in late May or early June while others observe it at the first full moon or first new moon following the rising of Matariki.

Matariki is a shortened version of Ngā mata o te ariki o Tāwhirimātea, or "the eyes of the god Tāwhirimātea", but it is sometimes incorrectly translated as "little eyes". Similar words do occur in most Polynesian languages, deriving from Proto-Polynesian *mataliki, meaning minute, small; the use of the term for the Pleiades constellation is also ancient and has been reconstructed to Eastern Oceanic

(Please update the interwiki links on Wikidata of your language version of the article after each week's translation is finished so that all languages are linked to each other.)

About · Nominate/Review · Subscribe/Unsubscribe · Global message delivery 07:04, 18 Mac 2019 (UTC)