Unique Wedding Tradition in Indonesia

Wedding Tradition in Indonesia

We live in the age of 21st century, where everything is almost available anywhere and anytime. We can surely say that now we’re living in the most digital era we’ve ever been. But there’s some certain things that we can’t make it digital.

We must make it as traditional as possible in order to keeping the culture and the tradition value. And one of them is marriage or wedding tradition. Marriages in certain country are still considered something sacred, intimate and even mystical.
Indonesia, one of the largest countries in Asia is currently have more than 1.340 tribes living on 17.504 islands.  With that much tribes and islands, can you imagine the diversity of its culture and tradition? From people who live near the ocean, deep inside the jungle, to people live in the highest mountain, they’ve their own unique culture and tradition that sometimes bugging urban people logic. Here’s some of the list of unique wedding tradition in Indonesia :

Kromojati

This tradition is quite new among people in Bohol, Gunung Kidul, Yogyakarta Province. They have unique tradition planned by local government since 2007. The rule is, every young man who wants marrying a woman from Bohol area must plant 5 teak tree seed as customary dowry. The seed must be planted by himself in Gunung Kidul (Mount Kidul) area, hoping it will bloom and making the mountain greener and more alive. Philosophically speaking, the seed represent their marriage life as they grow older and stronger. Romantic, isn’t?

Unique Wedding Tradition in Indonesia

Constipation Wedding

There’s one strange wedding tradition in Kalimantan (Borneo) that will make you shake your own head  : The groom and the bride cannot pee and poop for 3 days and 3 night. Before the marriage begins, the couple cannot pee or poop for at least 72 hours. Their family member will taking turns guarding the toilet, so the couple cannot go and do some ‘business’ in the bathroom. This unique wedding tradition originated from Tidung Tribe in Kalimantan Island. They believe by doing this tradition, the couple will have a wealthy marriage and plenty of children.

Colong Wedding

Osing tribe in Banyuwangi also have one unique wedding tradition: the bride will be ‘kidnapped’ for 24 hours in the groom’s house. And then, one man from the groom’s family will be appointed as Colong or the convincer. Colong will come to the bride’s house and try to convince her parents to accept and give their blessing to the wedding. Aside from formality, they will always accepted and give their blessing. Strange, right? Unfortunately, this tradition are slowly forgotten and fading away.

Bainai Night

Minangkabau nature and culture are astoundingly unique. It have one particular tradition about wedding called Bainai Night. Bainai Night is a ritual procession by putting mashed red henna leaves to the bride’s fingernail. Bainai is an expression of love and blessing from the the family and the ancestor. In some area the bride will also be herded to do some showering ritual before the Bainai Night comes. The elderly will splash the bride with soaking water from seven different types of flowers. After that, the bride fingernail will be painted by henna.

Nyantri Culture

In Kraton Jogja culture, the groom must stay in the bride’s home area for about two or three days before marriage. This tradition is called Nyantri. In the past, especially in Yogyakarta, the groom and the bride usually didn’t know each other very well, or even they haven’t meet before the wedding. This condition sometimes will make the groom scared and run away from the marriage. In order to prevent this happening all the time, the groom will ‘Nyantri’ or visit the bride’s residence. But not on her actual house, the groom’s will stay in neighboring house or close family.

Yeah, for us modern people who live in the city will question all this tradition and what’s the benefit of it. Some people will value it as a traditional value, while other will see it as strange and obscure culture. But one thing for sure, we must respect the good-old traditional culture.

Unique Wedding Tradition in Indonesia

posted: Rani