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Joy

Toddler learning to do the Māori haka dance of his ancestors is filling people with so much joy

"The world has never needed the haka more than it does now."

Photo credit: Canva

A toddler learning to haka dance is melting hearts everywhere

At Upworthy, we've covered a lot of stories centered around the traditional Māori war dance known as the haka. In recent years, people around the world have come to know and be enchanted by the passion, rhythm, and raw emotion that comes from these powerful performances. Many viewers are even brought to tears simply by watching.

Having a window into such a rich culture can make people curious on how cultural traditions like the haka are passed down. Surely Māori babies aren't born knowing this dance instinctively, nor is there a magic switch that flips when they reach a certain age. One family gave a little glimpse into how the culture is passed down from one generation to the next and it's beyond adorable.

In late 2024, New Zealand wife and mum Hope Lawrence uploaded a video of her 18-month-old practicing the haka with his dad in the dining room, and the little guy is surprisingly good. In the video, the baby starts off with a stomp and grunt as his dad shows him the wero, which is the trembling hand often seen in the dance. As the dad walks back and forth starting the chant along with wero, the little one tries his best to mimic his dad.

Before too long the toddler is chanting along and copying the dad's moves almost exactly, even if you can't quite make out what the little guy is saying, his haka is still powerful. This isn't the first time the baby has been caught doing the haka. Just a month before the adorable video, he was caught practicing his haka along with the New Zealand rugby team All Blacks on the family television. His tiny haka moves have taken social media by storm with over 53 million views, 7.1 million likes, and more than 53K comments.

@hopeylawrence
Teach them the way young 😍 Keep our culture going #haka #maoritok #fyp #hakawithdad #maori #aotearoa #newzealand #maoritiktok #culture #pukana #kamate #parliament #toitutetiriti #dad #standtall #tamariki

People cannot get enough of his powerful little dance, with one person writing, "The Haka is so powerful but seeing this father teaching his baby is so much powerful. I am deeply moved."

Another person thinks the dance is just the light people need to see right now, saying, "The world has never needed the haka more than it does now."

Someone else noticed the confidence exuding from the toddler, noting, "The way y'all were in complete cadence together with the leg slap... he came in with confidence because of you, and y'all nailed it perfectly together."

@hopeylawrence
Our little haka obsessed boy practicing his Kia Rite 😍 😍 #pov #hakapractice #haka #nzhaka #fyp #pukana #viral #kiarite #maori #NZ #nztiktok #aus #nzmaori #allblacks #newzealandallblacks #haka #hakaleader

One viewer appreciates the peek into another culture, saying, "I LOVE THIS!!! if it wasn't for tik tok I would've never been exposed to Māori culture. can't tell you how many Haka performances I've watched. they make me feel so empowered."

Appreciation of culture being passed down is a common theme among commenters with one saying, "This is truly beautiful to watch, not just because the father is keeping interaction and culture with child, but it's keeping a beautiful culture present... some other cultures didn't have this."

@hopeylawrence
The haka is on repeatt😅 #haka #babyhaka #maoritok #maori #culture #hakatime #fyp #toitutetiriti #aotearoa #pukana #viral 📸 credit:@Zealan_lawrence

Many people who watch the haka have a deeply emotional reaction they can't explain even though they have no personal connection to the culture. The dance seems to speak to a part of humans that may be missing their ancestral connections, possibly awakening some dormant longing. There's no real way to know for sure, but the amount of people who report being brought to tears every time the dance is performed is significant. This baby will surely keep his culture alive as he grows into adulthood, likely teaching his own child as his father taught him.

And by the looks of it, the haka isn't the only piece of his heritage that this little guy is learning. Below, we see dad teaching him Mau rākau, an ancient Māori marital art that incorporates staffs.

@hopeylawrence
Learning Mau Rākau with dad 😍 Another awesome way to learn our culture and bond with our tamariki We were gifted these beautiful Rākau from @tekotiri who make these Rākau and have heaps of educational resources available on their youtube channel, instagram and Tik tok for those wanting to learn and dive more into their Te Reo Māori. Please go check them out and give them a follow- IG Tekotiri Follow our journey as we learn more #dadsoftiktok #hakababy #tereomaōri #viral #haka #hakadad #dadandson #maoritiktok #maurakau #maori #fyp #foryoupage #pov #dads #newzealand #trending #dads

Learning about ourselves, where we come from, and the world around us is indeed a never-ending adventure.

This article originally appeared last year.

From Your Site Articles

dance

Family

Lawyer's argument on why babies should only take their mother's last name goes viral

For Dr. Proudman, it's about responsibility.

via Jonathan Borboa and Charlotte Proudman

A baby and feminist lawyer Dr. Charlotte Proudman

At this point in human history, it seems somewhat arbitrary that children almost always receive their fathers’ last names. A lawyer in London, England, made the case that babies should be named after their mother, and it caused a bit of a stir on X (formerly known as Twitter.)

On August 9, Dr. Charlotte Proudman tweeted: “A message to pregnant women — please give the baby your surname. You carried a baby for 9 months, gave birth, and will be responsible for that child for the rest of your life. When you’re registering the baby, ask yourself: why is the father’s surname more important than yours?”

The tweet received 5.3 million views and over 34,000 likes.

— (@)

Many responded by explaining why babies tend to take the names of their fathers. However, should those reasons apply today? Many also said that giving a child the father’s name makes them more likely to want to care for the child, but that’s setting the bar pretty low for men.

The point is to make the father feel responsible for the child.
— David Pinsen (@dpinsen) August 10, 2023

From patronymics to trade professions learnt from your father to dynasties named after a common ancestors title, yes its long been the default in the West to refer to ones parents via their male line
— Placeholder (@_Plac3_hold3r) August 10, 2023

I'd assume it started because going wayy back last names would originally be based around your family profession, and the father would be the one working and therefore pass on his name and profession, it would be nonsensical for the mother to pass on the name of her father.
— Dom 🌻 (@Vladispook) August 10, 2023

Even though there were good reasons for passing down the father’s name in the past, why should they matter in 2023 when the world is drastically different?

Traditional solutions are to problems long forgotten.
— Elliot Hammer (@ElliotHammerSR) August 15, 2023

While some fought for tradition and others cheered for an outright reversal of naming customs to catch up with the times, others thought people should do what they feel is best for their families instead of conforming to someone else’s ideas.

Or everyone can just do whatever they want and we don't have to make it a thing
— Triggery Fingers (@triggeryfingers) August 10, 2023

I think it’s my choice what surname I give, rather than feeling some obligation for my maiden surname.
— Emma Nash 🕷🇪🇺 (@DrEmmaNash) August 9, 2023

Everyone is free to have whatever opinion they choose on baby surnames. But Dr. Proudman’s tweet does bring up one significant issue. Just because we’ve always done something one way doesn’t always make it right. No tradition is sacred enough to be beyond reevaluation.

From Your Site Articles

baby names

These millennials demonstrate there's no wrong way to make a little holiday magic.

True

Leah Ableson is a 24-year-old wedding planner living in New York City, and she’s made it her mission to create traditions that bring others joy.

On paper, Leah could be quintessential material for the opening of a Christmas movie: a millennial who’s overtaxed by work and too busy to think of anyone other than herself before having an unexpected run-in with Santa that reminds her of the true meaning of Christmas. But Leah’s already begun a tradition of helping others around the holidays with no Santa run-in required.

Busy as she is, Leah sets aside her birthday every year — just a few weeks before the holidays — to go shopping for as many toys as she can afford, and then she drops them off at Toys for Tots. She’s also part of a bigger annual tradition: She’s a member of a specially trained team that helps Macy's host Santa and his elves during their month-long residency at SantaLand on 34th Street.

All images via iStock.

Leah created her holiday traditions to be about one thing: keeping the magic alive for others.

She sees much of that magic firsthand as children — and adults! — interact with Santa. "There have been kids who have asked for peace in the world, or peace in their families, or for their parents to get everything that they've ever wanted," she writes in a message. "You really see so much good.”

That human goodness — and Santa’s ability to coax it out of people and into the open — is what constitutes holiday magic in Leah’s book. The idea that she, too, could spread some magic of her own is what inspired her to start her own toy-drive tradition.

"Seeing the kids at SantaLand every year really drove home to me how special Christmas and the magic surrounding it are for a lot of them," she says. "To a lot of kids, toys aren't these material objects, they are treasures that inspire their imagination and creativity. Going out and picking out toys for kids felt like a way that I could sort of encourage that magic."

There's a common misconception that millennials are universally uninterested in traditions. But Leah is definitely not alone in using rituals new and old to celebrate the season.

Across her generation, people are doing the same thing: picking and choosing which traditions are important based not on an older generation's input, but on what rituals bring them and their communities the most joy.

For 23-year-old Mae McKenna, midnight Mass is the event that completes her Christmas. She goes with her seven-person family, and as she begins to think about starting a family of her own, she says that church will be a tradition that she keeps with her.

"There’s a lot of really sweet magical stories that come out of the religious end of the holiday that keep people humble," she shares. "It’ll be important to me to pass that onto my kids so they care more about spending time with family and celebrating than focusing on the gifts they get."

For a family of swing dancers, it's raucous cooking-and-dancing Christmas prep that defines the season. "We listen to the same six CDs in the same six-disk CD changer," explains 22-year-old Carolyn Chadwick. "It's not so much about the gift-getting or giving. My family doesn't get along very well, but something happens to us when we dance. I can't quite describe it, but it's important that we keep doing it."

Some traditions are downright ridiculous but no less treasured. "I created a tradition of always getting my brother and sister wooden shapes from Michael's for Christmas. It's the worst gift ever, and it's always funny," says 24-year-old Ryan Creamer, who says he started giving at least one truly terrible present every year to lighten the pressure associated with trying to give the perfect gift.

That Leah, Mae, Ryan, Carolyn, and others put so much thought into their holiday traditions contradicts the notion that their generation is too "self-centered" to care about such things.

"I think millennials have a way of saying when we think something is pointless, or being done for the wrong reason," Leah wrote. "And so I think a lot of the traditions that older generations may have held onto are being questioned, but I don't think it's because we don't respect tradition. I'd like to think our age group upholds fewer traditions, but the ones that we uphold have great value."

From Your Site Articles

Why Halifax sends Boston an amazing thank-you gift every year.

This is what gratitude is all about.

Every year, Boston gets a giant, free Christmas tree as a present.

Photo via iStock.

The tree is a gift from the city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has been sent every year since the 1970s. It sits in Boston Common and is the city's official Christmas tree.

Bostonians should be super proud of that tree. I mean, it's a handsome tree. Nice branches. Very tall. No galls or loose monkeys or whatever passes as ugly in the world of trees. But the real reason Bostonians should be proud isn't about the tree; it's about why they get the gift in the first place.

This is a story about what makes me really, really like humanity.

Let's go back to 1917 and the site of a terrible tragedy.

Image via Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management/Wikimedia Commons.

In 1917, World War I was in full swing and Halifax was a major refitting station for ships throughout the Atlantic. People, relief supplies, and weapons poured from there and into The Great War.

Despite this huge role, Halifax was peaceful. But on Dec. 6, 1917, two ships collided in the harbor. This wouldn't have been a serious problem except that one of them, the Mont Blanc, caught fire.

The Mont Blanc was carrying more than 2,000 tons of explosives. 20 minutes after the collision, the flames found the munitions.

The resulting explosion was unlike anything the world had ever experienced.

Image via Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management/Wikimedia Commons.

At the time, the Halifax explosion was the largest manmade blast ever. It took the invention of nuclear weapons to top it.

1,600 homes were destroyed, and thousands were killed or injured. Nearly the entire north half of the city was gone. The city of Dartmouth, a local Mi'kmaq settlement, and the black community of Africville were also destroyed.

Civilians, firefighters, police, and soldiers immediately organized a relief effort. They fought fires, freed trapped people, and even commandeered cars to act as emergency ambulances. It was long, exhausting work.

Two days later, a train pulled up and immediately distributed a ton of relief straight into Halifax's arms.

The train was packed with food, water, medical supplies — pretty much everything the city needed. Relief workers jumped out, running into the city to relief the exhausted Halifaxians.

Where had it come from? Boston.

Two days before, someone had managed to get a telegraph to Boston, over 400 miles away. Within hours, they'd organized a relief train, sending it north — through a blizzard! — to get Halifax help.

Boston wasn't the only city to help out, but Halifax remembered that train.

The next year, Boston received a giant tree from Halifax as an epic thank-you note.

Later, in the 1970s, the Nova Scotian government decided to revive the practice, turning it into a tradition. They take the tree very seriously; they even employ a Christmas tree specialist to locate and procure a perfect, wild tree.

Photo via iStock.

Humans can be mean and selfish and weird; it's true. But we also have an undeniable instinct to help each other out.

Whenever there's a crisis, you'll also find people helping — newlyweds helping to feed refugees or even the U.S. sending an aircraft carrier to Haiti after Hurricane Matthew.

So Bostonians should be proud of their tree. It's a big, physical reminder that when we can help each other out, we do.

12 vintage Fourth of July photos remind you why this country's so darn great.

'Merica.

Ah, the Fourth of July: the day Earth gave birth to the United States of America.

If Americans have been good at doing one thing throughout the past 240 years, it's been throwing amazing birthday bashes for the place we call home.

Just check out these 12 vintage pics that prove that point nicely:

1. We've rocked sparklers in high heels like champs.

Photo, taken in 1932, by General Photographic Agency/Getty Images.

2. We've created our own patriotic boy bands to commemorate the occasion.

Photo taken in 1940 by Bert Garai/Keystone View/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

Watch out, One Direction.

3. Sometimes, we've taken breathers in the summer sun too. (It is a holiday, after all.)

Photo taken in 1957 by Terry Fincher/Keystone/Getty Images.

4. And other times, we've thrown big neighborhood picnics.

Because food + sunshine = pure bliss.

These South Carolinians did it right back in 1939. Image from The New York Public Library .

5. Some of us have been gracious enough to celebrate our independence with prominent foreign figures — even if they used to be our enemies.

U.S. Ambassador Lewis Douglas enjoyed a chat with the First Lady of London at a Fourth of July party in 1951. Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images.

U-S-A! U-S-A!