Rapa Nui calendar

The Rapa Nui calendar was the indigenous lunisolar calendar of Easter Island. It is now obsolete.

Attestation William J. Thomson, paymaster on the USS Mohican, spent twelve days on Easter Island from December 19 to 30, 1886. Among the data Thomson collected were the names of the nights of the lunar month and of the months of the year:THOMSON, William J. 1891, p546. "Te Pito te Henua, or Easter Island". Report of the United States National Museum for the Year Ending June 30, 1889. Annual Reports of the Smithsonian Institution for 1889. 447–552. Washington: Smithsonian Institution. (An online version is available [www.sacred-texts.com/pac/ei/ei61.htm here])

The natives reckoned their time, and in fact do so still by moons or months, commencing the year with August, which was, according to the traditions, the time when Hotu-Matua and his followers landed upon the island.

Months Thomson recorded the months as follows:

{| class="wikitable" !Rapanui name !! Meaning !! Western equivalent, 1886–1887 |- |Anekena | |August |- | Hora-iti | little summer | September |- | Hora-nui | big summer | October |- | Tangarouri | | part of November

Days

The month was divided in two, beginning with the new and full moon. Thomson recorded the calendar at the time of his visit to the island as follows. The new moon occurred on November 25 and again on the night of December 24;Calculated here. Easter Island is about 109° (7.3 hours) west of Greenwich Mean Time, so the 09:55 UTC new moon of December 25 occurred at 2:38 AM local time, on the night of December 24. Thompson records the crescent was first visible on November 26.

{| class="wikitable" !Rapanui name !! Meaning !! Western equivalent, 1886 |- | Kokore tahi | first kokore | November 27 |- | Kokore rua | second kokore | November 28 |- | Kokore toru | third kokore | November 29 |- | Kokore hâ | fourth kokore | November 30 |- | Kokore rima | fifth kokore | December 1 |- | Kokore ono | sixth kokore | December 2 |- | Maharu | first quarter | December 3 |- | Ohua | | December 4 |- | Otua | | December 5 |- | Ohotu | | December 6 |- | Maure | | December 7 |- | Ina-ira | | December 8 |- | Rakau | | December 9

Three sources correspond with each other except for two intercalary days (in bold), and the night of the new moon in Englert, which seems to have been confused with one of these. Beginning with (o)ata, the night of the new moon, they are:

day Englert Thomson Métraux day Englert Thomson Métraux *1 oata oata ata *15 omotohi omotohi motohi 2 ohiro oari ari 16 kokore tahi kokore tahi kokore tahi 3 kokore tahi kokore tahi kokore tahi 17 kokore rua kokore rua kokore rua 4 kokore rua kokore rua kokore rua 18 kokore toru kokore toru kokore toru 5 kokore toru kokore toru kokore toru 19 kokore hâ kokore ha kokore ha 6 kokore hâ kokore ha kokore ha 20 kokore rima kokore rima kokore rima 7 kokore rima kokore rima kokore rima 21 tapume tapume tapume 8 kokore ono kokore ono kokore ono 22 matua matua matua *9 maharu maharu maharu *23 orongo orongo rongo 10 ohua ohua hua 24 orongo taane orongo tane rongo tane 11 otua otua atua 25 mauri nui mauri nui mauri nui x — ohotu hotu 26 mauri karo mauri kero mauri kero 12 maure maure maure 27 omutu omutu mutu 13 ina-ira ina-ira ina-ira 28 tireo tireo tireo 14 rakau rakau rakau x — — hiro

*New moon, full moon, and first and last quarters.

The kokore are unnamed (though numbered) nights; tahi, rua, toru, haa, rima, ono are the numerals 1–6. The word is cognate with Hawaiian ‘a‘ole "no" and Maori kahore "no" and Tahitian ‘aore "there is/are not"; here it may mean "without [a name], nameless". The word kokore is cognate in other Polynesian calendars such as the series of nights called korekore in the calendars found in New Zealand.

Analysis The calendar collected by Thomson is notable in that it contains thirteen months. All other authors mention only twelve, and Métraux and Barthel find fault with Thomson:

Thomson translates Anakena as August and suggests that the year began at that time because Hotu-Matua landed at Anakena in that month, but my informants and Roussel (1869) give Anakena as July.MÉTRAUX, Alfred. 1940, p52. "Ethnology of Easter Island." Bernice P. Bishop Museum Bulletin 160. Honolulu: Bernice P. Bishop Museum Press.

We are basing the substitution on the lists by Metraux and Englert (ME:51; HM:310), which are in agreement. Thomson's list is off by one month.BARTHEL, Thomas S. 1978, p48. The Eighth Land. Honolulu: the University Press of Hawaii.

However, GuyGUY, Jacques B.M. 1992. "À propos des mois de l'ancien calendrier pascuan" ("On the months of the old Easter Island calendar"), Journal de la Société des Océanistes 94/1:119–125 calculated the dates of the new moon for years 1885 to 1887 and showed that Thomson's list fit the phases of the moon for 1886. He concluded that the ancient Rapanui used a lunisolar calendar with kotuti its embolismic month (AKA "leap month"), and that Thomson chanced to land on Easter Island in a year with a leap month.

The days hotu and hiro appear to be intercalary. A 28-day calendar month needs one to two intercalary days to keep in phase with the 29½-day lunar month. One of the rongorongo tablets may describe a rule for when to add these days.GUY, Jacques B.M. 2001. "Le calendrier de la tablette Mamari", Bulletin du Centre d'Études sur l'Île de Pâques et la Polynésie 47:1–4.

References

Rapa Nui calendar

Bron en licentie