Matariki - the Maori New Year
NZ's new public holiday (24 June)
![Mātāriki 2 Kai Tunutunu i waho game card drawings - produced by Learning Media (3/3) Mātāriki 2 Kai Tunutunu i waho game card drawings - produced by Learning Media (3/3)](icon.jpg)
New Zealand’s first Matariki public holiday was held on 24 June, 2022.
Long celebrated by Maori as the New Year, Matariki is the star cluster known in English as Pleiades, one of the groups of stars used by early Maori settlers to navigate the Pacific Ocean on the first voyages to Aotearoa.