WELCOMING RAMADHAN MONTH
(Muna Tribe’s Style)
Ramadhan is the big month of moslem
in the world. This month is the special month to fast in order to get forgiveness
from Allah S.W.T. Indonesia, a bigger country of moslem, has diffrent style to
celebrate this month as a result of the diversity of cultures. One of the
cultures is Muna. Muna as a culture that exists in South East Sulawesi has three
ceremonial traditions for welcoming fasting month id est: praying together in early
fasting, making a devotional visit to
the grave, making noisy sound from the traditional manner.
Praying together in early fasting
means all of the family in Muna people sitting togteher to pray. Usually this
traditional activity will be guided by Imam,
while doing this activity women in Muna will prepare many traditional food to
be eaten such as: ayam kaparende, lapa – lapa, cucuru, sayur bening, waje, and so forth. The praying is conducted in early evening before first
Ramadhan coming. They believe that this activity intends to grateful to our
creator because they can cheerfully meet again with this special month.
Making a devotional visit to the
grave, two or three days before Ramadhan
people in Muna will grouply go to the grave bring a bottle of water, a dupa,
and a set of tools for cleaning graves.
They will clean the grave and after that they will pray for the safety of the
the human corpse in hereafter. While doing this parying they also switch on the
dupa. They belive that the fumes of
dupa will connect them to the human corpse in order to make their praying
successfully deliver to them. Commonly people in Muna will prioritize to go to
their relative’s graves first.
Producing noisy sound from traditional
manner, children in Muna usually make the noisy sound from the big bamboo and
switch on this one by using oil (It seems like fire cracker). Much oil will
produce the biggest sound. They can laugh and compete the biggest sound of it. This
activity is a kind of welcoming Ramadhan month with the joy.
Every culture has different style
for welcoming Ramadhan month. Muna people is one of the tribes in Indonesia
that has traditional activity for welcoming it. All of these activities sign as
their grateful to Allah because they can do fasting anymore. They also give a respect to human corpse by
praying for their safety in hereafter. So it is indicated that the society of
Muna tribe greet Ramadhan month by doing any activities that connecting them to
the others in horizontally (other people) and vertically (Allah).
Written by:
Devi
Ratna Sari
