Bukah is the Achehnese term for the ifṭār or breaking of the daily fast during the month of Puasa (Ramadhan). As C. Snouck Hurgronje describes in The Achehnese, the fast in Acheh is announced and broken each evening by the firing of a cannon-shot from the Dalam; in former times this prerogative of firing the gun was one of the high prerogatives of the Sultan, and the sunset signal served as the universal call to bukah.
The Daily Cycle of the Fast
The Mohammedan law does not brook the most trifling breach of the prescribed abstinence. The smallest particles of solid or liquid food, or the smoke of tobacco or opium, entering the body between earliest dawn and sunset make the fast-day null and void and render it necessary to repeat it later on. As regards the breaking of the fast, however, each one may follow his own inclination; but it is considered sunnat or commendable to take some food immediately after sunset, and equally so to have another meal before the break of day. This latter meal is called sawo (a corruption of the Arabic saḥūr) by the Achehnese.
That none may miss the time for preparing and eating the sawo-meal, the great drum (tambu) in the chapels is beaten at intervals from 1 to 3 A.M. In the days of the Sultanate an additional warning was conveyed by means of a cannon-shot (called sambang) fired about 4 A.M. to warn the people that “a white thread might now be told from a black,” as the text of the Quran has it — i.e. that the time of the sawo had come to an end. The Achehnese now apply this name sambang to the morning and evening guns fired by the Dutch garrison.
The Meunasah Assembly
During the fasting month almost all the people of the gampong are wont to assemble at the meunasah to await the sunset. At the appointed time they partake of a meal prepared from general contributions under the supervision of the teungku, and share in the seumayang magrèb or at least remain as spectators during its performance. Even notorious opium-smokers contribute their share and do not fail in attendance, though they do not even make a pretence of sharing in the meal through fear of being laughed at. They choose a place in the bale near the meunasah, or at least refrain from entering the latter.
The customary dish for this preliminary breakfast is a porridge (kanji) made from rice and various leaves pounded fine. It is cooked by some poor old man of the gampong, who gets from the teungku a share of the pitrah for his pains. The assembled villagers each receive a small portion, which is consumed in silence, after which the teungku leads the sunset prayer.
The Three-Day Meat Fair
The bukah is intimately connected with the broader economy of the fasting month. The most palatable food — such as is not in daily use at other times — is chosen in order to guard against a gradual loss of appetite and consequent indisposition. Thus the stockfish which forms the staple animal food daily consumed by the Achehnese is, during the fasting month, replaced by meat, which is at other seasons rarely used in most households and regarded as a luxury. Hence comes the ancient custom of buying a stock of meat in every gampong during the three days preceding the commencement of the fast. On the last day before the fast, the people feast abundantly on the meat, and pickle the remnants with salt, vinegar, etc., to form a provision calculated to last about fifteen days. In former times there was a regular fair in Banda Acheh during those three days, as a store had to be laid in not only of meat but of all other household necessaries as well, sufficient to last for a month. Both men and women in Acheh have a passion for such busy scenes, so that a great part of the population of the three sagis used to come to the capital to join in the fair.
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.