Hello everyone
How are you ? I hope you are in good health and always given health wherever you are. On this occasion, I would like to share a few traditional activities that have been carried out for generations and have become a belief for farmers in Aceh, especially where I live. The name of the activity is Khanduri Blang. Or in Indonesian it is called (Celebration of descending to the rice fields).
'When the farmers finish the harvest and plan to go down to the fields, then Khanduri Blang is a mandatory thing they do for a blessing and trust in abundant harvests in the future.
What is Khanduri Blang?
Khanduri Blang Or in the language called (kenduri down to the rice fields). It is a ritual of trust from the people of Aceh which has been carried out from generation to generation to support and ask for blessings from the creator and satisfying harvests in the future. For the people of Aceh, Khanduri Blang is something that is mandatory for them to do and is still preserved until now. Khanduri blang is generally done when farmers who want to go back down to the fields and start the rice planting period.
Origin of Khanduri Blang
The origin of khanduri blang is not known for certain. However, from several sources it is stated that khanduri blang is the result of mixing Acehnese cultural activities with the Islamic religion which was spread by Arab traders in Aceh. This tradition continues to be maintained even though the process is not the same anymore and is slightly modified because of the times. However, the important things of traditional rituals continue to be maintained from time to time.
The procession of Khanduri Blang activities is followed by several steps of the event:
- Announcement of ritual events
- Preparation of traditional materials and feasts to be brought to the ritual
- Traditional ritual process
- Pray together
- Eat together
1.Announcement of ritual events
The first stage in the Khanduri Blang ritual, namely, the traditional elders will announce the time and place for the event and what preparations must be made to carry out this event. At this stage, only traditional elders have to make announcements because they are afraid of misinformation in delivery. Generally, this activity is carried out in the community's rice fields.
2. Preparation of traditional materials and feasts to be brought to the ritual
At this stage, the traditional elders will prepare the peusijuk device or in the language called fresh flour which is the main tool in carrying out this activity. The community is asked to bring the seat mats used to hold the event as well as a small amount of food that they will eat after the traditional rituals and prayer together.
3. Traditional ritual process
As for this process, all existing farmers are asked to bring the rice seeds they planted so that the elders will carry out a peusijuk procession to the seeds they brought so that the hope from the seeds in peusijuk will produce abundant harvest and bring blessings to the farmers.
4. Pray together
This joint prayer procession is carried out after the traditional ritual event, because this joint prayer process is carried out to ask for blessings from the creator for the traditional ceremony they perform and they also ask the creator so that this year's harvest can be abundant and without pest disturbance.
5. Eating together
The highlight of this ritual procession is eating together, this is a form of community gratitude for their past harvests so that future harvests are also expected to be abundant. As well as at this eating event, it creates social interaction between the community, especially fellow farmers, and their cohesiveness in farming is getting stronger so that with this customary ritual event, they can share experiences with the agricultural techniques they do.
Maybe that's enough of my story this time on the issue of Traditional Beliefs. I apologize if there are words in my writing that are not understandable. From here I express the greatest respect from the author. Regards
