Celebrating the start of Matariki

At Mairtown Kindergarten we celebrate Matariki (Māori new year) with three significant events.  Each year we start our traditions with our delicious Matariki breakfast.  Our Matariki breakfast is greatly anticipated and a real highlight, it is wonderful to see our tamariki who have previously experienced our breakfast share their experiences with our new tamariki.  Fortunately for us Donna has been back this term, as she has exceptional skills in the kitchen and always prepares a beautiful selection of kai to share with our whānau and tamariki.

Matariki symbolises the coming of the Maori New Year.  Matariki has two meanings, both of which refer to the cluster of stars.  Mata Riki means Tiny Eyes, and Mata Ariki means Eyes of God.  Matariki appears in the eastern sky sometime around the shortest day of the year, and is thought to determine how successful the harvest crop will be in the coming season.  The brighter the stars, the more productive the crop will be.

There has been the usual build up to the breakfast with the tamariki helping to choose and create our magnificent menu.  It certainly was an awesome way to start the day with healthy kai including, eggs, sausages, baked beans, selection of cereals, muesli, yogurt, fruit salad, toast, all served with milo, coffee or tea.

Matariki celebrates the diversity of life.  It’s a celebration of culture, language, spirit and people.

After enjoying breakfast I asked our tamariki what was their favourite part of breakfast.  Here are some of the children’s reflections; 

Tyler:  My favourite was the toast and butter and jam.

Grace:  Yummy rice bubbles.

Ahmad:  I love eggs.

Toby:  I had sausages and yogurt.

Emma:  I love rice bubbles and yogurt.

Sadie:  I had a sausage and some toast and I buttered my toast by myself and I had some eggs.

During Matariki, we celebrate our unique place in the world.  We give respect to the whenua on which we live, and admiration to our mother earth, Papatūānuku.

We would love to say a huge thank you to Donna for all her amazing cooking skills and to everyone who attended and enjoyed the delicious breakfast with us.  Thank you all for making it another enjoyable kindergarten community event.  Before the end of term we will be continuing to celebrate Matariki with our annual Harvest day and at the end of the month we will hold our annual Hāngi and Lantern Parade.

Mā te wā, Susie