A Māori lunar expert says whānau, particularly in the north of the country, will need to have karakia ready to catch a glimpse of a rare total lunar eclipse.
At just after 10pm tonight the moon will line up directly with Earth and the Sun. Earth will completely block any sunlight reaching the moon, with the light instead being bent around the Earth’s atmosphere, giving the moon a red tint, giving its informal ‘blood moon’ name.
Rereata Makiha says Māori tipuna called the phenomenon Marama Kūtia and saw it as the death of the moon. However, he says it doesn’t change how the moon would normally affect people.
“It didn’t affect anything in terms of growing kai or planting. Our gardens would normally go down on the Ōturu moon, so yesterday they planted thousands of kūmara tupu (plants) at home and so we avoid this matenga o te marama (death of the moon), Marama Kūtia. So we usually avoid the Rākaunui days and we plant the day before on Ōturu.”
The Marama Kūtia will be easily visible for most of Aotearoa for around 90 minutes from 11.15pm. However, Metservice is forecasting cloudy skies above Auckland and parts of Northland, Coromandel and the East Coast. Te Waipounamu, apart from parts around Te Rua o te Moko (Fiordland) and Murihiku (Southland).
Makiha says the best way for whānau in cloud-affected areas to see the eclipse, which will be the last full lunar eclipse until 2025 is to have a good karakia ready to hopefully clear the clouds away.