The 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 40th, 44th, 50th, 100th and 1000th days after birth, marriage or death are “regarded throughout the Eastern Archipelago as epochs of importance, and are always marked by some ceremonial observance.” In Acheh, as Snouck Hurgronje describes them, these day-epochs govern much of the rhythm of Achehnese domestic life: they prescribe the formal feasts of the first week of marriage, the great cooling of the bridal pair on the seventh day, the post-natal “removal of the oven” on the 44th day, and the long series of funeral feasts that extend from the third day after death to the thousandth. Together they constitute a calendar of ceremonial time that overlays and shapes the routine of private life.
The wedding week
In Acheh, “the first three are those most strictly observed after a wedding.” On the third, fifth and seventh days after marriage, the family of the bride offers the bridegroom and his peunganjos a formal feast (peujamee), such as that described by Hurgronje in his account of the marriage ceremonial. The whole of the first seven days are however more or less festal in character. Bride and bridegroom are daily dressed out in their wedding toilette. Early in the morning the bridegroom must repair to the meunasah of the bride’s gampong, where, as we have seen, all the young men of the village are congregated. He is escorted by a number of his male peunganjos, who bear behind him an unusually large and well furnished sirih-bag. He must now greet each of these young men separately, and hand him the great sirih-bag (bungkoih). He must also walk through the gampong from time to time, and wherever he sees a number of men sitting together, must hasten up to them and proffer sirih. Should he fail in these civilities towards his new fellow-villagers, the young folk punish him by smearing the steps of the bride’s house with ordure by night, the intention being that the bridegroom should step on the unclean thing when first leaving the house in the morning. “As a rule, however, he is forewarned in time and escapes this disagreeable material consequence of his shortcomings; it is considered a sufficient revenge to make him ashamed.”
The seventh day: the cooling
Not until after the morning meal on the seventh day is the wedding-feast (keureuja) regarded as concluded. It follows, therefore, that at this point the bridal pair require a “cooling” (peusijue). For this purpose they both sit down at the entrance of the juree with their legs stretched out straight in front of them. Boughs of the cooling plants already enumerated are dipped in flour and water (teupong taweue), and their feet are besprinkled therewith. The bridegroom alone is smeared behind the ears with yellow glutinous rice; this is done by a peunganjo of the bride. Meantime the mother, aunts and sisters of the bride assemble in the passage (rambat) of the house to take leave of the bridegroom on his departure for home. He anticipates their greeting by a deep obeisance, in return for which they give him money presents of an amount equal to those which he has presented to the bride during the first seven evenings as a recompense for her seumbah. “All these tedious ceremonies of the first seven days are sometimes simplified by being performed one after another on the first or third day”. The saying is, uròe lhèe geupeutujoh = “they have made the third day into the seventh”. The converse may be observed in Java, where the hamilans prescribed by the adat for the 3rd, 5th and 7th months of pregnancy often resolve themselves into a single feast held in the 7th month.
The 44th day after childbirth
The 40th and 44th days after birth mark, in Acheh, the close of the post-partum “oven” period. The Mohammedan law sets down the average period of purification after childbirth at 40 days, and this is the time observed in Java. In Acheh, however, “the period of forty days customarily observed in other countries is often replaced by forty-four, which latter number plays a prominent part in Achehnese superstition.” After the 44 momentous days have passed, there takes place what is known as the “removal of the oven” (boih dapu); this however as a rule really occurs on the 41st or 43rd day, as a day of even number is considered less lucky. A kanduri is given to a number of teungkus and leubes, at which feast there must be plenty of apam or cakes in addition to the rice and its accessories. One of the guests consecrates the fast by the funeral prayer, in which the mercy of Allah is invoked for all the dead and for the living as well. The midwife removes the dapu or oven and pushes it beneath the house, where the platform on which the mother has rested during her confinement is also deposited. The woman is then given a bath, which is called the “bath of 44” (i.e. 44 days).
The 10th, 50th, 100th and 1000th days
The 10th, 50th, 100th and 1000th days are likewise observed in Acheh, especially after death. Such day-epochs are the framework on which the great Achehnish feast of the kanduri — the religious feast given on every important occasion of life — is hung; and their observance is one of the chief marks of that combination of adat and Mohammedan law that governs the whole of Achehnese domestic life. As with the other customary ceremonies described by Hurgronje, most of these are “looked on as indispensable by the Achehnese where the bride is a virgin, even though the bridegroom has been already several times married and is of a considerable age. At the same time exceptions may be made by agreement of both parties, nor will anyone dispute the legality of the marriage on the ground of neglect to perform some of the ceremonies above described.”
See Also
Source
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.