A simple, complete royal Javanese wedding ceremony

A simple, complete royal Javanese wedding ceremony

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post/Yogyakarta

Most people perceive Javanese traditional wedding ceremonies,
especially ones held for royal weddings a palace, to be drawn-
out, exhausting and meticulous, despite the pomp and splendor.

Yet, in fact, to have such a grand wedding ceremony yourself
does not need to be exhausting, while at the same time
maintaining the sacred values of the rituals, and adhering to the
pakem, or agreed reference, for conducting the ceremony.

What was presented during the Wedding Fair 2005 held last
weekend at the Santika Jogja Hotel here is such an example.

Called the Paes Ageng Yogyakarta-style wedding, which is a
simplified version of the wedding ritual performed at the
Yogyakarta Palace that takes days to finish, this one took only
some 45 hours to conduct. Yet, it had all the processions that
such a traditional wedding ceremony requires.

"The main idea of holding this fair, apart from maintaining
local culture, is indeed to provide people with inspirations that
Javanese traditional wedding does not have to be meticulous and
tiring," the hotel's public relations officer Erma Wheny
Hertuti told The Jakarta Post.

A Javanese traditional wedding, according to Artyandari of the
Yogyakarta-based Asri Wedding Service that performed the Paes
Ageng wedding ceremony last Saturday, consists at least 12 main
processions, each of which has its own meaning.

"It's not that we believe that the processions are a guarantee
of a good marriage. Rather, they (the processions) represent
symbols on how to make the marriage a good one," Artyandari, who
is finishing his post graduate (S2) study on humanities at Gadjah
Mada University's School of Cultural Sciences, explained.

The ritual begins with the tebus pisang sanggan and kembar
mayang processions during which an elder member of the couple's
family brings a bunch of bananas and other accessories to the
location of the wedding, followed by another elder who brings in
twin decorations made of mainly young, yellow, coconut leaves
called kembar mayang.

"The processions symbolize the cleansing of the path that has
to be passed through by the bride and groom, which is the task of
the elder members of both families," Artyandari said.

It is then followed by the panggih procession during which the
bride is met by the groom to undergo another series of
processions including balang-balangan gantal (throwing betel
leaves at each other), ranupada (where the bride washes the
groom's feet), and the egg smashing ritual, before both are
escorted to the dais to perform other processions.

In the balang-balangan gantal procession, the bride throws
betel leaves at the groom's chest, while the groom throws them on
to the bride's forehead. It symbolizes the bride's hope for a
"wide-chested" (patient) husband and the groom's hope for a
mature, thoughtful wife.

The ranupada procession symbolizes the bride's willingness to
be a devoted wife and to help her husband through difficult
times.

Egg smashing, which is done by the bride's makeup woman,
symbolizes the breaking of both the bride's and groom's mind and
thought as an expression of their readiness to enter into the new
episode of their life. It also symbolizes the couple's readiness
to raise a family.

The couple is then escorted, walking side-by-side, to the dais
to perform kacar-kucur, dhahar klimah, water drinking, and
sungkeman processions.

The kacar-kucur procession, in which the groom pours a mixture
of various beans, yellow rice, and coins into the bride's hands,
symbolizes the husband's duty to support the family.

The dhahar klimah procession during which the groom feeds
balls of rice and cooked chicken liver to his bride, symbolizes
the groom's pledge to become a devoted husband who will love his
wife with all his heart. (The Javanese word for liver is hati,
which is also the word for heart).

Both are then required to drink clear water to symbolize the
clearness of their hearts, thoughts and minds to live their life.

After this, it's then the turn of the bride's parents to
perform the mapag besan (fetching the in-laws) procession.

They fetch the groom's parents, seat them on prepared seats
next to the dais and allow them join the next procession of
sungkeman, where the bride and groom show respect to their
parents by kneeling and pressing their faces onto their parents'
knees.

The last procession is nglorot manten, where the bride and
groom are allowed to leave the wedding to go to their prepared
room.

"For Muslim couples, we also prepare Muslim costumes for this
particular Paes Ageng wedding ceremony," Artyandari said.

Apart from the royal Paes Ageng wedding ceremony, the two-day
fair also presented various selections of simplified, yet
fashionable kebaya (Javanese traditional dresses) and skirts
specially designed for modern, practical people to wear on their
wedding.

"We offer alternatives for those who don't want to be troubled
too much with details," said designer Tommy Tri Gunawan, who
presented some of his wedding kebaya and dress designs.

Tommy said that with such designs one would not need hours to
do the makeup as the kebaya and skirts had been designed in such
a way so that they could be put on in much the same way as
ordinary dresses.