Festivals and celebrations (New Zealand)

Where can I find information about festivals and celebrations in New Zealand?

(Years 5-8)

Colour photo of 3 lit paper lanterns hanging from a branch at night. They are masks of Chinese story characters. — Image: Auckland Lantern Festival (4468713666) by russellstreet on Wikimedia Commons.

Entry last updated: 20/10/25

Introduction

Aotearoa New Zealand observes many different festivals and celebrations throughout the year. These include arts, music and film festivals, as well as traditional celebrations like Matariki and Eid al-Fitr. Some of these special days are also public holidays.

Festivals

Te Matatini (kapa haka), Chinese Lantern Festival and Festival of Lights, are just some of the festivals we celebrate in New Zealand. The websites below have information about these and more.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Owned by the Ministry of Culture and Heritage. Te Ara answers all questions about the people, environment, history, culture and society of New Zealand. Information is well-researched and reliable.

Go to the search box at the top of the page to enter 'Festivals'.
Select Festivals or Beginnings of festivals in New Zealand to find information on music, art, film festivals and centenaries.
Enter 'celebrations' in the search box to read examples like Celebrating communities, Anniversaries and Public holidays.
You could also search using the names of festivals like Matariki or Diwali.

Tips: Search words, or keywords, are the most important words in our question. You can leave out small words like ‘the’ and ‘of’ and just choose the main ones, eg festivals. We can always change our keywords or add more if we need to.

NZ History

NZ History is a great website for information about events, people and places in New Zealand's history. If we go all the way down the page, we can see that the website belongs to the Ministry for Culture & Heritage, so the information is well-researched and reliable.

Choose the tab Events.
Go to Events A-Z.
Look down the page to M.
Select Music Festivals.

Tips: We like sites like this because they’re reliable. You can tell because of their web address – they have either .govt or .ac, meaning they are from government or educational organisations. They’re also New Zealand sites, so relevant for us.

Religious festivals

These websites will help you find information on different religious festivals celebrated in Aotearoa New Zealand, such as Christmas, Eid and White Sunday.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara has an excellent section on Easter, Christmas and New Year.

Enter 'Christmas' or 'Easter' into the search bar to find the page Easter, Christmas and New Year.

NZ History

NZ History has an excellent page that covers the history and special features of Christmas in New Zealand.

Go to Culture and Society from the front page.
Look under Holidays and Events to read about Christmas in New Zealand.
You will find different stories from the past and present about Christmas in New Zealand.

Fact Monster

Fact Monster is an online encyclopedia and homework site. It has lots of basic facts and is a good starting point for all sorts of questions. If you look down to the bottom of the site, you will see it’s run by Pearson Education, a publisher of educational books.

Enter the search word 'Diwali' into the search box.
Browse all the results that mention the word Diwali to find information about how it is celebrated and when is it celebrated.
Or enter the word 'Ramadan' into the search box.
Look down the page for Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr to find information about Ramadan.

Tips: Many web pages have links to further information or to other recommended sites. Following these links is a great way to find out more.

Celebrations

Guy Fawkes, Valentine's Day, Saint Patrick's Day and Halloween are celebrated each year in New Zealand.

Britannica School Middle

Britannica school is one of the EPIC databases. EPIC is a collection of reliable databases covering lots of different topics. It’s put together especially for New Zealand school students and helps to answer questions like this.

Search for 'observances' or 'holidays'.
Go to holidays and observances at a glance.
This has a list of different celebrations that happen around the world by month. Some of them are celebrated in New Zealand, too.
Select links to find out about Guy Fawkes Dayin November, Valentines Day in February, or April Fools' Day.

Tips: To use the EPIC resources, you need a password from your school librarian. Or chat with one of our AnyQuestions librarians to help you online. Some EPIC databases may also be available through your public library.

Christchurch City Libraries

This website belongs to Christchurch City Libraries, a group of public libraries that come under the Christchurch City Council.

Look under the tab What's On to select Festivals, holidays and special days.
Then choose a month to find out what is celebrated in that month.
For example, the month of March has information on who celebrates Saint Patrick's Day.
Or, use October to find out about Halloween and Labour Day.

Tips: Websites that have .com or .co in the address can have good information, but you need to assess how reliable it is. Check the About us link on this website. That can tell you what the company’s mission and values are.

New Year observances

Different cultures celebrate the beginning of a new year at different times of the year. Revisit the websites below to find out about them.

Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Te Ara also has information about New Year celebrations in New Zealand.

Choose the tab called Stories A-Z.
Go to M.
Look down the page for Matariki - Te Tau Hou Māori.
Or go to P and look for Public Holidays and choose Easter, Christmas and New Year.

Hōpara kaupapa | Topic Explorer

This is an online tool from the National Library of New Zealand. It contains a wide range of quality resources for students on a variety of topics. These resources have been selected from reliable national and international sources.

Use the search box to enter the search word 'Matariki'.
Have a look at the Significance of Matariki and Matariki celebrations to find out about the Māori New Year.
The tabs Media type, Primary Source and Te ao Māori will help you narrow your searches.

Christchurch City Libraries

This website belongs to Christchurch City Libraries, a group of public libraries that come under the Christchurch City Council.

Visit the tab called What's On to find Festivals, holidays and special days.
Under January, go to New Year to find out when different cultures celebrate their New Year.