ECS Matariki Celebration

Our school has a really special day coming up soon and we’d like to let you know about it so you can join in the celebrations.

Matariki is the Māori New Year and as a Christian School there are lots of ways we can use it to celebrate God’s goodness to us. Some of the special things we can be thankful for and celebrate at this special time are our whānau (families), our tūpuna (family members who have passed on), things that God  has done in the last year, things we’d like to see Him do in the future (like we do at New Year’s Eve), and learning and talking through the lessons we have had to learn over the past year.  

Another thing we can also thank God for is the awesome community that we have at Emmanuel Christian School. There are so many people who work incredibly hard in many ways to support our school that we would love to have our families join together for a meal to celebrate our unique character. So on Wed June 18 we are going to do something special. 

We are going to use the day at school on the 18th to join our children into their whānau/house groups. They may come in their house colours, and until lunch time they will rotate around activities that will help them to join in the celebrations of Matariki. Then, for dinner, we would like to invite everyone who is a part of our school community to join us to share our evening meal together. You may choose to enjoy our delicious traditional “in-ground” hangi of chicken and veges, or vegetarian, or bring some takeaways of your own.  Hāngi meals will be presold for $6 (small) and $10 (large) and prepackaged. The hāngi will be unearthed at about 5:45 at night for people to enjoy.

Hangi Orders: Orders need to be completed by 3pm Friday 13th June
Please place your orders through www.lunchonline.co.nz
You can add your family’s orders under your child’s name.
If you haven’t used Lunchonline before you will need to register which is a simple process.  See the ECS website for more information on Lunchonline.

As you can imagine there is a lot of work to be put into an event like this so if you are able to assist in preparing the food on  June 17th, helping lay the hāngi from about 8:00-10:30am on June 18, or helping teachers with running crafts/ activities before lunch on June 18th then please let us know  by filling out the form below. We’d really appreciate the help. Matariki Form

After our meal, some of the school Kapahaka groups will perform for the families, as well as there being some other whānau related activities. We are thinking everything will be finished at about 7:30pm.  This is going to be a really special time for our school and family to build what the Māori term as “Whānaungatanga,” – a developing of togetherness and community… We really hope and pray that, as a part of our school, you and your family can join us to celebrate.