Makemake (deity)
Makemake (also written as Make-make; pronounced in Rapa Nui) in the Rapa Nui mythology of Easter Island, is the creator of humanity, the god of fertility and the chief god of the "Tangata manu" or "bird-man" sect (this sect succeeded the island's more famous Moai era). He appeared to be the local form, or name, of the old Polynesian god Tane. He had no wife. Makemake, as a face with large eyes or perhaps a skull with large eye sockets and a phallic nose, is a frequent subject of the Rapa Nui petroglyphs. The Birdman  sect. Métraux states that Easter Island's "greatest religious festival, the only one concerning which circumstantial details survive, was that of the bird-man, intimately linked with the cult of the god Makemake." Makemake drove the birds to nest on the islet of Motu Nui ('big islet'), the center of the "tangata-manu" (bird-man) sect. Four gods were associated with it: Makemake, Haua-tuꞌu-take-take ('Chief of the eggs', usually simply called 'Haua'), "vîꞌe" Hoa (Haua's wife) and "vîꞌe" Kenatea. Each of the four gods had a supernatural servant, whose "names were given" in the ceremonies. The  ivi atua was the 'seer' who has the vision to select who swam to Motu Nui. A "hopu" was one of those who make the swim to the islet. Per Englert, the "hopu manu" were "those who served the "tagata manu" and, upon finding the first "manutara" egg, took it to Orongo [on the mainland]." The "manu tara", or sooty tern, was the bird that the ceremony centred on; it was the first "manu tara" egg that was the goal of the ceremony. Companions. Makemake's principle companion was Haua. "The formula which accompanies an offering to Makemake always includes  Haua who appears in the myth as the god's companion." Makemake's offspring were Tive, Rorai, Hova and "the noblewoman Arangi-kote-kote". Media coverage. Makemake is featured in the 2000 BBC documentary "The Lost Gods of Easter Island" hosted by David Attenborough, where he embarks on a personal quest to uncover the history of a strange wooden figurine carving which turned up in an auction room in New York during the 1980s. In astronomy. The trans-Neptunian dwarf planet Makemake is so named because both the planet and the island are connected to Easter; the planet was discovered  shortly after Easter 2005, and the first European contact with Easter Island was on Easter Sunday 1722. The dwarf planet's code name was "Easterbunny".