Rapa Nui calendar

CalendarsThe 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 1886 19 December to 30 December. 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."

The months

Thomson recorded the months as follows:

:

:*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 "kokore" is cognate with Hawaiian "‘a‘ole" "no" and Tahitian "‘aore" "there is/are not"; here it may mean "without [a name] , nameless". [http://www.netaxs.com/~trance/mamari.html]

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, Guy [GUY, 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