Hari raja puasa (Atjèhnese oerë raja poeasa; Malay hari raya puasa; Arabic Īd al-Fiṭr) is the great feast that marks the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in Atjèh — the principal religious and social festival of the Atjèhnese year, and an occasion of considerable political significance, on which oelèëbalangs customarily paid their respects to the Panglima Sagi of the sagi to which they belonged. Piekaar’s Atjèh and the War with Japan treats the feast as one of the regular ceremonial hinges of Atjèhnese public life, repeatedly invoked — by both Dutch and Japanese administrators — as the moment for political gestures, religious proclamations, and the public ratification of authority.
The oelèëbalang and the sagi
The political weight of hari raja puasa in Atjèhnese society lay in the customary obligation of the oelèëbalangs to offer their congratulations to the Panglima Sagi on the termination of the fast. In the sagi of the XXII Moekims of Seulimeum, the historical opposition between the sagi head Panglima Polem and the oelèëbalang of Ba’ét found expression in the annual refusal of this courtesy: “Every year this antithesis found her demonstrative expression in the refusal of these uleëbalang to, on the occasion of the hari raja puasa, offer their congratulations to the sagi head with the termination of the fast.” Only after the deaths of the old Teukoe Panglima Pólém Moehamad Daoed and the equally powerful oelèëbalang of Ba’ét “did the younger generation” ease the antagonism.
The Japanese and the fasting month
Under the Japanese occupation, hari raja puasa became a fixed point in the propaganda calendar. The fitrah — the religious tax payable at the end of the fast — was regulated by Japanese proclamation, with the kalis instructed to ensure proper administration and distribution “on the evening before Idoe’lfitr, so that the poor and needy would receive their share on time.” In 1942 the fast ended on 12 October, on which occasion “the office staff in the service of the occupiers received a month’s salary as a ‘hadiah’ or ‘gift’.” In 1944, the Indonesia Merdéka promise of Prime Minister Koiso of 7 September 1944 was timed for the closing days of the fasting month, and the Atjèh Shimbun came out with a 22-page special edition “specially devoted to the celebration of Idoe’lfitr and the independence promise.”
The fasting-month proclamations
The fasting month was also the occasion for political-religious exhortation. As the war turned against Japan, Resident lino issued proclamations to coincide with the fast: in 1944, the Resident’s proclamation “pointed out” that “the current time must be regarded as decisive for our victory or defeat in the holy war (peperangan jang soetji) for the liberation (untoek memerdékakan) of the people of Great East Asia.” The main board of the Maibkatra and the permanent members of the religious court issued a joint appeal “in which they upheld support for the Japanese army, even during the fasting month, as a duty toward religion, people, and fatherland.”
The capitulation in the fasting month
The most fateful coincidence of hari raja puasa with political upheaval came in August 1945, when the Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945 arrived “in the Muslim fasting month, [when] the preparations for the Allied invasion were in full swing.” The fast that year ended on 7 September 1945 — the day on which “oelèëbalangs from all of Aceh traveled to Koetaradja to offer their congratulations” to Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah of Peusangan, in a striking renewal, under the new conditions, of the old hari raja puasa ceremonial of the sagi.
Sources
The Achehnese, Vol. I, by Dr. C. Snouck Hurgronje, translated by A.W.S. O’Sullivan, indexed by R.J. Wilkinson. Leyden: E.J. Brill, 1906.
See Also
- Maibkatra
- Atjèh Shimbun
- Teukoe Panglima Pólém
- Teukoe Hadji Tjhi’ Moehamad Djohan Alam Sjah
- Japanese capitulation of 15 August 1945
- Indonesia Merdéka
- Puasa (Ramadhan fasting month)
- Pitrah (zakat fitrah)
- Traweh (Tarawih)
- Kanduri
- Dalam
Source
Atjèh and the War with Japan, by Dr. A. J. Piekaar, translated from the Dutch original Atjèh en de oorlog met Japan (1949) (‘s-Gravenhage/Bandung: N.V. Uitgeverij W. van Hoeve; English edition), Chapter I § 1, Chapter VII §§ 2–4, Chapter IX.