Atjeh 11th month marriage taboo — the prohibition on marriages in the eleventh month of the Islamic lunar year (Dhu al-Qi’dah, in Dutch/Atjehnese spelling the elfde maand) — is the Atjeh-specific taboo recorded in Prof. Dr. Kernkamp’s chapter De invloed van den Islam in Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk (1946). The taboo rests on the position of the eleventh month as “beklemd” — Dutch for “pinched, constrained” — between the two great Muslim feast days: the Eid al-Adha (the “Great Feast”) that closes the twelfth month (Dhu al-Hijjah, the pilgrimage month) and the Eid al-Fitr (the “Small Feast”) that opens the tenth month (Shawwal, after Ramadan). The eleventh month thus falls between the two feasts and is “pinched” by them, making it unsuitable for the celebration of a marriage.
Kernkamp’s account
Kernkamp introduces the taboo in the course of his discussion of the interaction between the Islamic lunar calendar and indigenous Atjeh conceptions of time. His wording: “It appears again clearly of Islamic influence when in Atjeh the 11th month, which is ‘pinched’ (beklemd), because it lies between the two great Muslim feast days, is considered unsuitable for a marriage.” The same chapter notes that the Atjeh prohibition on marriages in the eleventh month is one of several Atjeh-specific calendar taboos — alongside the Friday prohibition on most work (which in Atjeh takes on “more or less the character of an obligatory day of rest, which the Islam does not require”), the *pen* concept in ear-piercing and gravestone-placing, and the use of the constellations of Scorpio and the Pleiades for the agricultural year.
Comparative context
The Atjeh taboo on marriages in the eleventh month is, in Kernkamp’s account, a specifically Atjehnese variant of the wider Indonesian complex of calendar taboos. The Sundanese, by contrast, observe hadjat’s in the 3rd, 5th and 9th months of pregnancy, “as far as possible, but especially in the very important 7th [month], on a date in which a 7 also occurs”; the Javanese observe a “geboortedag” that returns after 35 days (selapan), when the day bears the same name in both the 5-day pasar week and the 7-day Muslim week. The Atjeh taboo on the 11th month is thus the Atjeh variant of the same general Indonesian pattern of calendrical prohibitions.
Significance
For the Atjeh-focused reader, the 11th-month marriage taboo is significant as one of the distinctive features of Atjeh calendar practice. The taboo rests on the position of the eleventh month between the two great Muslim feasts — a position that, in Atjehnese eyes, makes the month “pinched” and therefore unsuitable for the celebration of a marriage. The taboo is, in Kernkamp’s reading, an example of the syncretism between Islamic calendar-reckoning and the older Atjehnese conceptions of time as a field of forces in which certain periods are pen (open, wide) and others beungèh (closed, narrow). The 11th month is, in this syncretic reckoning, a beungèh month for marriages.
Dutch terms used in this article
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk — What the Indies Received and Gave
- Wereldbibliotheek N.V. — World Library Ltd.
- invloed van den Islam — influence of Islam
- hadjat — votive feast-meal
- selapan — 35-day cycle
- pasar — market
- pen — open/wide (Atjeh concept)
- beklemd — pinched (Dutch)
- Atjeh — Aceh
- Atjehsch — Acehnese (adjective)
- Acheh — Aceh
- Java — Java
- Prof. Dr. — Professor Doctor
- Dr. — Doctor
See Also
- Pen (Atjeh)
- Atjeh calendar constellations
- Soerat te’h
- Friday prohibitions
- Kadar night
- Ratib in Atjeh
- Pitrah
- Two great Mohammedan feasts
- Acheh
- C. Snouck Hurgronje
- J. Kreemer
- Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk
- W. J. A. Kernkamp
Source
Wat Indië Ontving en Schonk, onder leiding van Dr. C. W. Wormser (Amsterdam: Wereldbibliotheek N.V., 1946), p. 88 (chapter De invloed van den Islam door Prof. Dr. W. J. A. Kernkamp).