Posts by Islander
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Matariki is certainly 'a variable feast' - for some iwi it's the first rising of the star group before sunrise; others will use different stars...the Midwinter thing (I dont know a Dunedenite who would call it Hogmanay, and I have a lot of family in or around Otepoti) initially was a shortest day celebration, but seems to increasingly be mixing with Matariki, and the time of the festiviities extending over a fortnight or so. I see the virtue of canning QB as a public holiday, and shifting the holiday to a weekend conveniently close to the middle of June - all & sundry being able to look forward to family winter feasting & crackers, bonfires, and storytelling (or whatever we like), & check out the rising of Matariki, and enjoy the significance of the time.
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"Here in Dundedin we celebrate both Hogmanay and Matariki - it seems to me like a waste and divisive in the community to do the two celebrations within days of each other..."
Ur, did you mean Christmas and Hogmanay?
Hogmanay = the last day of the year
Matariki = the shortest day of the year i.e 21/22 June -
Best celebrations/holidays are those we just go do-here, Matariki and Hogmanay (you've got that nice wee time between'em) along with birthdays, The Season, & such, are how *we* celebrate The Year- everybody makes their own up-
I do think a national holiday should be celebrated during our winter- and Matariki is the obvious swing-around-the-star: my tribe has this lovely little song:
"Pipiri te whetu
te marama i te raki-
Pipiri hokioi
ta wa wairua e-"conjunct that with newly created songs/dances/whoops/whatever and make our midwinter a playful celebratory look-forward to spring thing-
speaking of which, whitebaiting has been ratshit - but all good to us all -
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Matariki. with fireworks. is already the celebration pf choice= among US! ALL of US!
OK. any pf us= -
love the cosytumes for your boys Jolissa (I am a devout fan of Obelisk in the original! - and other incarnations-)- but truth is, Halloween means diddly squat to ANZers.
So, Paul C, it's a lost cause here, entirely commercially - and unsuccessfully - driven. It just doesnt FIT with our seasonal round or - may I strongly suggest- our current (and long may it continue) irreligiosity?
Look what happened to a pack of Marqueseans/Tahitians when they turned up here! Organised religion got chucked off the waka - and i descend from those fellas-
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I'm going to have to think about 'unit of bookness' for a while (a book to me is a story - or set of information- between covers.) We'll send photos apropos the weekend feast ASAP-
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Well, I suppose if we were desperate, anything written on papyrus/paper/parchment/leather/stone/wood - ur - gel?
Let alone bytes - makes a book?"The Bible" is a contested (think Vulgate for a latter challenger, Torah for an earlier one) SET of books i.e it's a compendium-
no worries either way Giovanni - welcome you & son back to Aotearoa - and - I cant yet make the bread recipe. BUT one of my mates - who is a butcher & knifemaker, is soo going to make your Nonna's recipe this weekend!
Kia ora tatou-
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Giovanni - quite aware of the bible/biblos etc. is, per se, the word in Europe (well, a lot of European languages) for 'book'- BUT a compendium is NOT *a book*-
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"The Bible" isnt a book! It's a compendium of poetry, legend, rubbish history, wishful thinking, prayers & psalms, whakapapa (adulterated),
and moral/everyday behaviour directions. (Dont mix your linen & wool in clothing, for example. Stone disobedient children to death. Etc.)As an atheist, I despise the damage it has caused humanity.
As a poet, I love the cadences of the King James RV (and some books - o inadvertently missed out by the KJRV?? - in the Vulgate)
But - book it aint. No religious tome is. They are mind-'suaders, made over centuries, by humans with a vested interest in controlling other humans.
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Oooo! Runs upstairs (okay, craawwwls) to grab Wirrin set - and the Gaelyn Gordon trilogy which begins with a short story called "Mist" and takes two especial human characters - glue-sniffing Maori streetkid & South Island farmer's son through adolesence & some of the best re-inventions of Maori 'Others' (taniwha, patupaiarehe et al) I've so far encountered-
as highly reccommended as "The Nargun & The Stars"-