Marama- Polynesian GodDeity"Moon God"
Also known as: Te Marama
Titles & Epithets
Domains
Description
Each night of the lunar month carries its own name in the maramataka, the Māori calendar built on Marama's phases. This night for planting, that one for fishing, another for rest. When Rona cursed him for hiding behind a cloud, he reached down and pulled her into the sky. She is there still.
Mythology & Lore
Placed in the Sky
After the children of Rangi and Papa forced their parents apart, separating earth from sky, the world needed light. Tāne took the celestial bodies and fixed them to the chest of Rangi, his father. Tama-nui-te-rā, the sun, burned for the day. Marama lit the night. His was the softer light, the one that fishermen and navigators steered by, the one that women fetched water under.
The Nights of Marama
The Māori maramataka names each night of the lunar month. Whiro, the first night after new moon, is dark and still. Some nights call for setting nets in particular waters, others for planting kūmara. Elsdon Best recorded that different iwi assigned different activities to the same night, but Marama's face always told you what the day required.
Rona and the Moon
One night a woman named Rona went to fetch water from the stream. The moon was her only light. When Marama slipped behind a cloud, she stumbled in the dark and struck her foot against a root. She cursed him. Marama heard. He reached down from the sky and seized her. Rona grabbed a ngaio tree, but the moon pulled harder. She went up, tree and all, water gourd still in her hand. The Māori saw her figure on the moon's surface, clutching her tree, fixed there for cursing the sky.
Relationships
- Associated with