A little bit surprised when received
the invitation (around four months before the wedding), it’s not like another
invitation but it’s electronic invitation #lewl, my family was invited from
Blackberry Messenger cause we were separated by long distance with my caousin’s
family. Her name was Ririn, I know a lot about her and she often help me when i
were travelling just like 9 months ago when I went to Thailand. Since she is
older than me, she always told me and gave me an advice and suggestion about
everything. Back to the invitation letter, after I received it then check the
date and decide if i would go or not by asking my parents.
When I went to Yogyakarta, there
is so many schedule which i have to finished early because on the 4th day I
have to go back to Surabaya (I have another business in there). For three days,
I must visit my great-grandma’s home at Kulon Progo on Friday, visit Tembi
Rumah Budaya, Trisek Beach and Malioboro on Saturday, visit uncle Dayat home on
Sunday morning, attend Ririn’s wedding party on Sunday afternoon, and head back
to Surabaya on Monday.
Great-grandma’s Home, Home sweet
home.
My Great-grandma’s home located
in Bantul, precisely in Kulon Progo village. It is located near Trisek beach,
on map you will found it near the Parang Tritis beach. I spent around 3 hours
trip from the central city of Yogyakarta to reach this place. There
are few homes here, as far as the eye could see, I only see huge rice
field and Bengawan river because that river disembogue at the Southern Sea
which is located in the tip of Bantul district. Did you know, one things that I
like from my great-grandma’s home is there is so many animal, like cow, sheep,
duck and chicken. I always imagine that if I were in Harvest moon real act.
Play with em, raise em, feeding em, and take a pict of em. So much funny i
think. On my great-grandma’s farm, it is important to have people who have a
real passion for animal care (just like me #haha) to raise these animals
especially the cows that are calm by nature.
Tembi Rumah Budaya
On Saturday morning, we went to
Tembi rumah budaya. It is far enough from Kulon Progo. Aproximatelly, we need 2
hours trip to go there. Tembi was a great place, actually it was a hotel but
during the beautiful view of this place so Tembi well-known as one of tourism
spot in Yogyakarta. Tembi consist of lovely javanese architecture, exactly from
the room, parking area, yard, until the main building. The meals were included
in the room reservation price so you dont have to pay separately for the food,
but the choice was limited, they just have Indonesian food. So what have i do
in this place? Just taking some photos and looking around the building.
Sunset in Trisek Beach
In the evening, we went to Trisek
beach which located only 1 Km from my grand-grandma’s home. This beach is so
beautiful but not crowd enough since it have a huge waves and peoples think
that the waves was come from the local myth figures called Nyai Roro Kidul. So
that i did not find any person who plays near the seashore. I took some photos
of me and my cousins, write-down some word on the sands, and of course looking
at the sunset, that was my main objectives to be there. We head back on maghrib
time.
Malioboro Street
When I was child, i ever thinking
of Malioboro (name of the street) and Marlboro (name of the cigarette) was the
same things, I think that two things relate each other. My mind keep rolling to
thinking that “Marlboro was a cigarette which created in Malioboro street”.
After i got my driver license I could go to this street to make a certain that
there is no cigarette factory along this street. It is not my first time to
visited this place, I have went to this place for several times until i have
forget about how many it is. On that Saturday night, I went to Malioboro with
my cousins and my little brother. We looking for a beautiful night view of
Yogyakarta. Besides, I wanna bought some shirt and boy bracelet. We spent 7
hours in Malioboro, started from 19.00 PM until 02.00 AM. Of course that is not
dangerous for us since we’re boys, we wont kidnapped by anyone.
Uncle Dayat’s Home
Truthfully, he’s not my uncle. He
was my mother’s uncle so I should call him grandpa. But because everyone call
him uncle so i also used to call him uncle. His home located near Kulon Progo
but i forgot about his address. Look briefly, his home just like a minimarket.
Yes, he is a merchant
and since childhood he was educated
to be businessman, so that why he have his own store. In the back of his store there
is a garden which surrounding his home. Well, i dont have any business with
uncle Dayat except religious gatherings, different with my parents which wanna
take a look of uncle health.
The
Wedding
When talk about wedding, it always followed by the local
culture. In Yogyakarta, especially on my cousin’s wedding party there is some
ritual too. As I known there is Siraman. The word siraman is derived from the root siram
which means ‘to bathe’. Thus siraman means to bathe both the bride and
the groom, with the will to purify them so that they can be clean and pure
physically and spiritually.The water used for Siraman is
taken from seven springs located around the Palace. The water will added with kembang
setaman (i forget what is kembang
setaman consist of), plaits of various flowers. This water will then be
used to bathe the bride. The first one to bathe the bride is her mother,
followed by the other elders.
After being bathed, the bride will take
ablution using the water placed in a pottery. The pottery will be thrown until
it breaks out in front of the bride. The crashing of the pottery symbolizes the
concept of pecah pamor, which means the revelation of the bride’s charm.
It implies an expectation that the bride will be even more beautiful and turns
out mangling (making people fail to recognize her due to her extravagant
beauty).
Finished with the bathing, the
ritual is continued with putting make-ups on the bride. One of the things to do
in the make-up is shaving fine hair on the bride’s forehead. This symbolizes
self-purification from negative aspects. The whole process of Siraman will be
carried out by women. This is to honor the women who have taken good care of
their children. The Siraman ritual is carried out as a symbol of
self-purification. Getting married is seen as entering a new phase of life, so
that through Siraman it is expected that the bride and the groom will be
purified either physically or spiritually.
The
next step is Akad Nikah, Akad Nikah will be concluded with the groom
doing sungkem to the bride parents, who will have taken down and put the
keris which bringing earlier behind him. It symbolizes the groom’s
request for blessings from and respect for the bride parents as he is
officially a husband to his daughter now.
On Monday I head back to Surabaya
because i have some work meeting with my staff and my cabinet on BEMF,
Hopefully i could visit Yogyakarta again next time :)
