Traditional wedding procession

Hello Hive friends, how are you?
I hope all friends are healthy and successful always

On this happy occasion, I would like to share my experience and customs at my brother's wedding in the past 3 days.

In a country, region or rural area, there are definitely differences in making wedding events or customs.
So in the Aceh area itself there are quite a variety of procedures for carrying out weddings to make it look festive.

The series of Acehnese traditional wedding ceremony procession consists of several stages as follows;

1. Jak ba ranup (between sirih)
Jak ba ranup is the earliest procession before the wedding. The goal is to propose and get agreement from both families. Jak ba ranup is also called a proposal, which begins when the groom brings gifts in the form of betel leaves, cakes, and others. This procession will continue when the prospective bride who is given the opportunity answers that she is willing to marry the prospective groom.

2. Jak ba sign (between signs)

Jak ba sign is the same as engaged, and is a continuation of proposing. In this procession, the groom's family returns to the bride's residence while discussing the wedding, the amount of dowry, the time of the wedding, and the number of invited guests. In addition, the prospective groom brings offerings in the form of yellow sticky rice, fruits, a set of clothes, and jewelry according to the ability of the man's family. The purpose of the ceremony is

To strengthen the sign, usually the groom will bring a complete set of betel leaves, along with various kinds of canned food, a set of clothes called a lapek sign and gold jewelry according to the ability of the groom.”

3. Boh gaca (wearing henna) / henna night

Henna night or boh gaca night is the night before the wedding which consists of the peusijuek ceremony (giving plain flour) to virgin baroe and peusijuek gaca, and batee meupeh (milled stone which means giving and receiving blessings and hoping for safety. This procession is held with the hope that get happiness for the bride and groom and make their sustenance easier.The boh gaca event is usually held for three nights in a row.

4. Ijab Kabul
The Kabul marriage ceremony is an absolute requirement for the validity of a marriage according to Islam. Before the marriage ceremony was carried out, the teungku kadhi asked the condition of the prospective bride and groom, whether they were ready to marry. As well as questions related to matters of household and worship. Before the marriage ceremony begins, Tengku Kadhi as a Kuakec officer, along with the male heirs, examines the dowry/jeulamee (dowry), which is submitted by the representative, namely the parents of the groom's heirs. Together with the dowry (jeulamee), various items of clothing, food, and other cosmetic items were handed over, which were neatly wrapped in a tray covered with a seuhap (aceh pattern covering).

Usually the marriage word is carried out in Acehnese "ulon Tuan peu nikah aneuk lon (if the woman's father is the one who gets married)….(name of bride), ngon gata….(name of groom), ngon meuh…..(amount of dowry that has been paid) agree). And the groom answered with the answer: "ulon teurimong nikah ngon kawennya ... (name of the bride), ngon meuh .... (amount of dowry) mayam, cash. There are several agreed and different pronunciations, adapted to local agreements and customs.

5. Tueng Linto Baroe/woe Linto

This procession is one of the most anticipated ceremonies, because it is the highlight of welcoming Linto Baroe, and being escorted to Dara Baroe's house.
The purpose of this ceremony is as follows:

In this ceremony, the bride has been made up and is wearing traditional Acehnese clothing, complete with a bun and her cak ceng (edit). Before side by side, the bride is guided to face both parents to do sungkem to both parents, then is seated in the aisle waiting for the groom and his entourage to arrive. Likewise with linto baroe, after being fully dressed, he bows to both parents to get his blessing, then he goes to the bride's house.
The groom and his entourage are welcome to enter and be handed over to the traditional parents of the woman. Then the groom is under the umbrella of two traditional elders from the woman's side, and then guided for rah gaki (foot washing). This is a symbol that to enter the household must be in a state of purity physically and mentally.
The bride who sits waiting for the groom is then guided to welcome the groom by doing seumah (sungkem) for the groom, as a sign of respect and full of devotion. In the linto baroe welcoming ceremony, it is usually accompanied by a ranup lamp dance (a welcome guest dance in the Acehnese tradition) and reciprocal rhymes.

6. Tueng dara baroe (invites the bride)

The tueng dara baro ceremony is a procession inviting the bride and her entourage to the parents-in-law's house (linto baroe's parents). This ceremony is usually held on the seventh day after the woe linto ceremony. At this ceremony, the virgin baroe is accompanied by one or two traditional parents, and brings typical Aceh cakes which are placed in a decorated talam/dalong and covered with a seuhap (a sange/serving hood embroidered with gold thread/kasab.

Arriving at the gate, virgin baroe was greeted with a sprinkling of breuh padee (rice), bunga rampai (bungong rampoe) and on seuneujeuk (leaves for plain flour).

In this procession, the reception is the same as the woe linto ceremony, only at the tueng dara baroe event there are no reciprocal rhymes and foot washing.

Those are some of the customs that are usually carried out by the people of Aceh when carrying out marriages.

This time I'm on the men's side, to make the party lively, we on the men's side prepare everything to welcome the bride to the man's house, along with his entourage.

first day activities

For the first day, as brothers from the male side, we invite the villagers to join in enlivening the event.
For close relatives of the groom, dividing work groups (men and women).

The job of the men on the first day is to look for food and prepare the hut/tent for the guests' place later.
Myself and my relatives went looking for fern leaves to be cooked into a side dish, fern leaves themselves are quite a lot in our area, this food has always been cooked on the wedding day of the people of Aceh, especially in rural areas.

journey to a place with lots of fern leaves

the process of picking fern leaves

These fern leaves mostly grow in damp and cold places such as near rivers

already found some fern fronds

We take the easy ones or just the soft shoots

This is the shape of a fern leaf that my brother has plucked

Collect and put fern leaves in a container so they can be easily brought home

For other groups of men, they set up tents for the bride's entourage later on the D-day.

The process of assembling a hut/tent

the process of patching a leaky roof, coincidentally in Aceh it's the rainy season

the process of making a place to put plates, glasses and others

For the women's group, ** on the first day **, they cook food for the men who work on the first day. The women also prepare tools and food ingredients to cook on the second day.
The village women's group and the groom's relatives also arrange the seats/places for the bride and groom to sit next to each other.

this woman is resting after decorating the aisle

this is the shape after finishing decorated

Surely those who are experienced in decorating the seat.
Sometimes the seat is decorated by the owner of the item and the groom pays a fee. But if you use a village, you only pay a little less than the seller of the item.

Now we enter the second day

On the second day starting at noon until evening, all family members do everything needed for the third day, such as cooking, baking and so on.

This photo shows the ingredients to be cooked such as sweet potato leaves and fruit young jackfruit

Women are cooking aceh specialties such as plik sauce, fern leaf sauce and so on

This is my little cousin who also took part in the preparation of the event, even though he was small but he also joined in enlivening the event with fun jokes!lol

The women's group is making cakes to be served to the invitees who come later

Grape-shaped cake, these ladies are really cool, smart in decorating the cake

A cake shaped like a red rose, wow, it's so pretty, if I eat it hehe !lol

This is a sample of the water that will be provided for the invited guests from the bride's side

In the afternoon the men catch and slaughter cows.
The special food at a wedding is beef, mutton or buffalo.
In Aceh itself it is called (kuah rayeuk) which means big sauce

This is the process of slaughtering a cow

the evening still continues with cooking and other preparations until 00.00 midnight for men and women.

My brother fell asleep on a chair because he was so tired preparing everything

Some people sleep because they are very tired but I stay up until morning because at 4 am I have to cook beef

This is belangong sauce or silumo sauce (beef soup), we cook it at 4 in the morning, so it's still warm when guests come.
Beef mixed with jackfruit

FINALLY UP TO THE PEAK DAY OF THE PARTY

The peak day or the day when the linto (groom) house arrives from the female group.

The invited entourage were eating the dishes that had been provided

On the third day/peak day, we become a committee in receiving guests, there are several group divisions, namely:

The receptionist is at the gate
Committee of guards inside the tent to serve the invitees
The handover taker brought by the woman
Bride and groom at home
Dish and glass washer

Incidentally, I was also the committee, so I didn't have time to take pictures of all the activities

The bride and groom sat on the throne together, witnessed by all the invitees who came

king for a day, that's what the bride and groom say here, because the event is only once in a lifetime

Those are several series of traditional wedding processions in Acehnese society which are full of meaning and philosophy. Hopefully this procession can continue to be preserved by future generations, as a form of respect for ancestral traditions that have been carried out from generation to generation.

Greetings from me khairuddin Hive account@yahli