The andam is the bride’s pre-wedding hair-shaving ceremony, the most esteemed element of the bridal toilette and the rite from which the great feast-day before an Achehnese marriage takes its name. The day following the third gacha-night is called the andam-day (uròe meu’andam), since the bride’s toilette — of which the andam, the shaving off of a portion of her hair, constitutes the part esteemed as of the highest importance — is completed thereon. From two to four days beforehand the people of the gampong issue the formal invitations.
The andam must be performed before midday; no blessing rests on it unless it take place while the sun is still ascending (uroe c’). Although the work is actually done by an expert — the professional hair-dresser, who receives as her recompense the remnants of husked and unhusked rice and eggs left over after the cooling — all the women assembled in the seuramoe likòt (the back verandah) nominally take part in it. The expert must nowise neglect to invite at least the most important guests to share in the andam, the invariable answer being, however, “Hana peugèh idin lon toe andam” — “It matters not; I leave the task to you.”
Before the commencement of the andam the necessary steps must be taken to avert evil influences, and means employed to ensure what is technically called “cooling” — the peusijuek rite common to all Achehnese transitions. The requisites for the andam and the cooling that precedes it are placed ready on two trays (talèng). On one is husked and on the other unhusked rice (breuëh and padè); on each stands a bowl of teupòng taweue (flour and water) and a small besom composed of a sisijue plant (whose very name implies cooling), a manè’-manòe plant, and other small plants whose leaves are supposed to be endowed with cooling properties. The besom is dipped in the flour-and-water and the bride is sprinkled with it; the operation with the breuëh and the padè is performed seven times, each being solemnly counted — sa, duwa, lhèe, peueët, limöng, nam, tujoh! This counting recurs in other Achehnese rites, such as the use of charms and in children’s games.
The bride being thus prepared, the andam proper is performed. Up to the time of marriage the hair is drawn back as tightly as possible; now, however, the shorter hairs are combed forward from ear to ear and shaved to the depth of about a finger’s-breadth along this line. The married woman continues to wear her hair in this manner until she has had some children, “andamming” for several years; but the andam properly so called is the great feast before a marriage. So soon as the actual shaving has been completed by the application of perfumed oil, keumanoë and seureumèë cosmetics, the female guests who have up to this been merely onlookers proceed to assist in the work, after which the peusunteng or smearing of yellow rice behind the ears completes the cooling. The bride is thus ready for the mamplenc procession of the bridegroom in the evening. The proceedings in the house of the bridegroom on the andam day are of a simpler description: a feast is given, but only to such of his relations as have to travel some distance to share in the ceremony of the evening.
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.