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TangihangaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, or more commonly, tangiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, is a traditional funeral rite practised by the Māori people of New Zealand. TangiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text were traditionally held on maraeCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, and are still strongly associated with the tribal grounds, but are now also held at homes and funeral parlours.^[1] While still widely practised, tangiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text are not universally observed, and some tribes have expressed concerns about lower numbers of tangiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text.^[2]

Modern practises

Tribes—at the level of iwiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text or hapūCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text—differ in how they honour those who die. TangihangaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text generally take three days, with burial on the third day. From the moment of death, the body of the deceased (tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text) is rarely alone.^[1] The tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text is transported (usually from a hospital and via a funeral home) to the maraeCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text. There they are welcomed with a pōwhiriCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text and will lie in state for at least two nights, usually in an open coffin, in the wharenuiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text.

Throughout the tangihangaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, the tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text is flanked by the bereaved family (whānau paniCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text;^[3] sometimes called the kirimateCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text or mourners),^[4] who take few and short breaks, dress in black, and sometimes wreath their heads in kawakawa leaves. Around the coffin, flowers and photographs of deceased relatives are placed.

Visitors come during the day, sometimes from great distances despite only a distant relationship, to address the deceased. They may speak frankly of his or her faults as well as virtues, but singing and joking are also appropriate. Free expression of grief by both men and women is encouraged. Traditional beliefs may be invoked, and the deceased is told to return to the ancestral homeland, Hawaiki, by way of te rerenga wairuaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, the spirits' journey. The close kin may not speak. It is traditional for mourners to wash their hands in water and sprinkle some on their heads before leaving the area where the tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text lies in state. Traditionally, the visitors would bring famous taonga (treasures), such as kākā and kiwi feather cloaks and pounamu mere, which would be placed alongside the tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text. These items were inherited by the heirs of the deceased, who were then expected to return them to the original owners at subsequent tangihangaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text. This practice was called kōpakiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text.^[5]

On the last night, the pō whakamutungaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text ('night of ending'), the mourners hold a vigil and at a time assigned by custom (sometimes midnight, sometimes sunrise) the coffin is closed, before a church or maraeCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text funeral service or graveside interment ceremony, invariably Christian in modern times. As with the area the tūpāpakuCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text lies, it is traditional for mourners to wash their hands in water and sprinkle some on their heads before leaving the cemetery. After the burial rites are completed, a feast (hākariCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text) is traditionally served. Mourners are expected to provide kohaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text ('gifts', typically money) towards the meal. After the burial, the home of the deceased and the place where the deceased died are ritually cleansed with karakiaCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text (prayers or incantations) and desanctified with food and drink, in a ceremony called takahi whareCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text, 'tramping the house'.^[6] That night, the pō whakangahauCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text ('night of entertainment') is a night of relaxation and rest. The widow or widower is not left alone for several nights following.

Both in traditional times and modern, the tangiCategory:Articles containing Māori-language text of high-profile individuals can be both extended and elaborate.^[7][8]

A 2011 court case over a disputed resting place ruled that Māori customary law could not be applied to funeral traditions under common law, as the customary law allows force to settle legal disputes.^[9]

References