Matariki, which means ‘Little Eyes’, is a cluster of stars also known as the Pleiades and the Seven Sisters.
On a clear dark night you can see, with good eyesight, about seven stars. However, these are just the brighter members of a cluster of more than 1,000 stars. The cluster, which has a diameter of 40 light-years, has a distance of 444 light-years.
All stars are born in clusters which, over time disintegrate. Once upon a time our Sun was a member of a cluster. The Matariki cluster has an age of about 90 million years. Compared to the Sun’s age of 4,600 million years these stars are babies. The cluster is expected to disintegrate over the next 250 million years. Do these numbers make you feel young?
From about 5,000 years ago the dawn rising of the ‘Seven Sisters’ was the herald of the new year for the peoples of Europe and Asia. Great temples such as the Parthenon were aligned to their rising. They marked the Spring Equinox and the opening of the sea lanes. They were also known as the ‘Food Bringer’.
When the migrations into Polynesia began the explorers took these traditions with them. These ancient traditions arrived in Aotearoa and, to this day Maori proclaim that the rising of Matariki heralds the beginning of the New Year.
Richard Hall
Stonehenge Aotearoa