"we’ll be celebrating by eating some good kai, spending time with our whānau, reflecting and remembering loved ones who are no longer with us, thinking about goals for the coming year, and turning off our lights to give the Matariki star constellation the main spotlight"

Hey there peeps!

It’s Matariki today in Aotearoa, also known as Māori New Year! Now that it’s officially been made a public holiday, we’ll be respectfully celebrating as best we can - and you can too! We gathered a few tips and links to help you learn more.

Firstly, we strongly encourage doing some reading of your own about Matariki - there are so many different nuances to it! Here’s some great resources you can check out:

✨Story: Matariki – Te Tau Hou Māori

✨Top Tips: Ways to Celebrate Matariki - Te Tau Hou Māori

✨Matariki: about the Māori New Year and how to celebrate it

For us at Balancing Monkey, we’ll be celebrating by eating some good kai, spending time with our whānau, reflecting and remembering loved ones who are no longer with us, thinking about goals for the coming year, and turning off our lights to give the Matariki star constellation the main spotlight because: 

Ain’t it cool?!

What we won't be doing is buying cheap trinkets and decorations - that's because those material things are not only bad for the environment, but we’d really rather not see such an important time of year become commercialised!

Thanks for reading, team! Enjoy celebrating Matariki ⭐