Puangarua
1. (personal name) Rigel - when it rises in the new year. It is the seventh brightest star in the sky and seen above Tautoru (Orion's Belt) in the eastern sky in early morning. With some iwi Puangarua heralded the beginning of the Māori year.
Kei te whakaata mai a Puangarua i roto i te Kāhui o Tautoru mō te marangai kei a Haki-haratua, arā, kei a Mei (TTT 1/3/1930:2007). / Rigel appears in the constellation of Orion's Belt for the rain in the lunar month of Haki-haratua, that is, May.
Mō te marama o Hune, arā o Te Tahi o Pipiri o te Tau, 1922: Ko Matariki te whetū o te tau tawhito kei te arahi mai i a Puangarua, te whetū o te tau hou (TTT 1/6/1922:10). / For the month of June, that is the first lunar month of the year, 1922: The Pleiades is the star of the old year that heralds Rigel, the star of the new year.
Synonyms: Poaka
