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haka (HAH-kah) - n., a Maori group dance with rhythmic chanting, vigorous facial and arm movements, and foot stamping.
Traditionally a war dance, now performed as to show respect during ceremonial greetings and funerals, but better known internationally as a challenge to opposing teams at sports events -- the New Zealand rugby union team aka the All Blacks is associated with this, as they've been performing a haka before matches since an 1888 tour of the United Kingdom [Sidebar: of note, most of that team were in fact Maori], but other New Zealand national teams also do it. From Maori, of course, though there are dance-related cognates in other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian haʻa, dance, and Tongan haka, hand action made while singing.
---L.
Traditionally a war dance, now performed as to show respect during ceremonial greetings and funerals, but better known internationally as a challenge to opposing teams at sports events -- the New Zealand rugby union team aka the All Blacks is associated with this, as they've been performing a haka before matches since an 1888 tour of the United Kingdom [Sidebar: of note, most of that team were in fact Maori], but other New Zealand national teams also do it. From Maori, of course, though there are dance-related cognates in other Polynesian languages such as Hawaiian haʻa, dance, and Tongan haka, hand action made while singing.
---L.
