The bubur sura is the Javanese porridge cooked on the 10th of Muharram (the day called in Java Sura, in Acheh Achura, in Arabic Ashura) — the dish that constitutes, in Java, the chief popular observance of the day. As Snouck Hurgronje describes it, “the bubur sura as it is called, also consists of various grains or seeds such as jagong or maize, peas etc., mixed with pieces of cocoanut and placed on top of the rice”. The bubur sura is thus the Javanese counterpart of the kanji Ashura of Acheh, and the two together form part of a wider complex of Ashura dishes — including the khichri of Hindustan and the lujub (“seeds” or “grains”) of Cairo — that extends across the Mohammedan world.
The wider complex of Ashura dishes
The cooking of special viands on the Ashura day is a custom “which is really no more than an insignificant adjunct of the Hasan-Husain festivals, but which exists elsewhere as an independent usage”. In Hindustan the chosen dish seems to be that known as khichri; in Cairo it is called lujub (i.e. “seeds” or “grains”). In Java the bubur sura, as described, also consists of various grains or seeds, mixed with pieces of cocoanut and placed on top of the rice. In Acheh this dish of porridge is called kanji Achura, and consists of rice, cocoanut milk, sugar and pieces of cocoanut, mixed with various fruits cut into small pieces — papayas, peas, pomegranates, plantains, sugarcane and various edible roots. The grain-and-fruit pottage of the Ashura day is thus, in one form or another, the common observance of the day across the Indian Ocean; the Achehnese version is the most elaborate, the Javanese the most austere.
The blessing of the bubur in Java
A small but significant difference between the Achehnese and the Javanese custom is the manner in which the dish is consecrated. In Acheh, the kanji Ashura is not cooked in every separate house; “one or two large pots full suffice for a whole gampong. Those who undertake the cooking receive voluntary subscriptions from their fellow-villagers.” The mess is brought to the meunasah or sometimes to the junction of the gampong-path with the main road. All who wish fall to and gormandize, “generally to such an extent as to cause indigestion. The blessing of the bubur by a prayer, though common in Java, is not customary in Acheh. In neither country is the feast strictly limited to the 10th of the month, but often extends some days beyond.” The blessing of the bubur in Java is the formal consecration of the dish by a religious formula; its absence in Acheh is one of the marks of the more sober, less ceremonial character of Achehnese Islam.
The survival of an old commemoration
The bubur sura, like the kanji Ashura of Acheh, is a survival of the old commemoration of Hasan and Husain — the grandsons of the Prophet, of whom Husain perished on the plains of Kerbela on the 10th of Muharram. “A further survival of the old commemoration of Hasan and Husain is to be found in the fact that the first ten days of the month which bears their name are regarded as unlucky. On them no work of importance is begun, no marriage with a virgin consummated (for that would mean speedy separation or the death of one of the pair), no child circumcised, no rice sown or planted out.” The porridge of the bubur sura is therefore, in Java as in Acheh, the popular observance of a day whose more impassioned commemoration — the tahut processions of the Shi’ite countries — has been purged away by “a later wave of orthodoxy, proceeding especially from Mecca”. What remains, in both countries, is the dish itself, the communal eating, and the lingering aura of an unlucky season.
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
- Ashura
- Ashura (10th of Muharram)
- Hasan-Husain festival
- Hasan and Husain
- Kerbela
- Asan-Usen
- Hasan-Husain Festival
- Mandi Safar
- Maulid sharaful ‘anam
- Kanduri
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.