How is Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar done?

Look at the moon tonight and name it. Note your energy three nights running. Compare with what the maramataka says.

Tāne Whetū

Living tradition

Maramataka, the Māori lunar calendar

Aotearoa New Zealand; today returning to schools and farming.

Every night of the moon has a name and an energy: some are good for fishing or planting, others for rest; the night you were born tells your rhythm.

How it's done

01Look at the moon tonight and name it.
02Note your energy three nights running.
03Compare with what the maramataka says.

With your own tools

You need nothing: step out, look up and note what you feel. That is the maramataka.

With Ocluna

Ocluna gives you tonight's phase, your birth phase and a ritual per night: the maramataka in your pocket.

See tonight's moonLearn Moon by playing

What Tāne Whetū tells you

The Māori maramataka has about thirty named lunar nights; some are good for fishing, others for planting kūmara, others for resting.
New Zealand made Matariki, the rising of the Pleiades, a public holiday in 2022: the Māori new year returned to the official calendar.
Polynesian navigators crossed thousands of kilometres of ocean without instruments, reading stars, waves and birds; the canoe Hōkūleʻa proved it again in 1976.
The Hawaiian star compass has 32 houses where stars rise and set; the navigator memorises them like a rosary.
The Dreaming is not the past: for Aboriginal peoples it is a permanent now in which the ancestors keep creating the landscape.
The sky emu is not made of stars but of darkness: it is the dust clouds of the Milky Way beside the Southern Cross.
In Ku-ring-gai national park near Sydney there is a rock engraving of the emu matching the sky emu's posture at egg-gathering time.
Aboriginal Australians have watched this sky for at least 65,000 years: they are the world's oldest astronomers.

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This reading is symbolic self-knowledge and entertainment content based on folk traditions. It does not predict the future, is not medical, legal or financial advice, and does not replace qualified professionals.

What Tāne Whetū tells you

The Māori maramataka has about thirty named lunar nights; some are good for fishing, others for planting kūmara, others for resting.

New Zealand made Matariki, the rising of the Pleiades, a public holiday in 2022: the Māori new year returned to the official calendar.

Polynesian navigators crossed thousands of kilometres of ocean without instruments, reading stars, waves and birds; the canoe Hōkūleʻa proved it again in 1976.

The Hawaiian star compass has 32 houses where stars rise and set; the navigator memorises them like a rosary.

The Dreaming is not the past: for Aboriginal peoples it is a permanent now in which the ancestors keep creating the landscape.

The sky emu is not made of stars but of darkness: it is the dust clouds of the Milky Way beside the Southern Cross.

In Ku-ring-gai national park near Sydney there is a rock engraving of the emu matching the sky emu's posture at egg-gathering time.

Aboriginal Australians have watched this sky for at least 65,000 years: they are the world's oldest astronomers.