The Kanduri Boh Kaye’e — the “Feast of Fruits” or “kanduri of fruits” — is a religious offering observed by the Achehnese on some one day of the month of Jumada al-akhir, the sixth month of the Mohammedan year. The month itself is known in Achehnese by the same name, Kanduri boh kayeu, in consequence of this custom, although older women sometimes preserve the alternative name Madika Seumeulheueh (“the last free one”). As C. Snouck Hurgronje explains, the word kanduri (Arabic kanduri or kenduri) supplies both the learned and popular senses of a pious offering in the Achehnese vernacular, designating at once a feast given to guests distinguished by their religious life and the alms given to a leube, ulama, sayyid or other devout person.
The custom itself is simple. On some day during the month, Achehnese householders purchase fruits of every kind to be found in the market and bring them as a kanduri or pious offering to the mosque or to the meunasah of their gampong. There the fruit is enjoyed by those of the faithful who happen to be present, under the supervision of the attendants of the mosque or of the local teungku. Although the offering is essentially a community one, no fixed day is prescribed; each contributor chooses whichever day suits his convenience within the month, so that the kanduri is repeated at intervals throughout Jumada al-akhir.
The original purpose of the custom appears to have been forgotten by the Achehnese themselves. In the present-day understanding, as recorded by Hurgronje, “these offerings are regarded as a kanduri keu ureueng chi’ — i.e. a kanduri for the advantage of the giver’s ancestors.” This transmutation of a possibly older seasonal or thanksgiving rite into a feast for the dead is characteristic of the way in which the Achehnese calendar of festivals has, century by century, been overlaid with new Islamic meanings. The same pattern is visible in the Kanduri Bu of Shaʽban, the Kanduri Apam of Rajab, and the Kanduri T’eungku Anjong of Ramadhan.
Like other minor kanduris of the Achehnese year, the Kanduri Boh Kaye’e does not rise to the dignity of a national festival. It is observed by individuals and families rather than by the gampong as a whole, and the only public element is the place in which the offering is consumed. It belongs, with the Kanduri Apam, Malam Salikur, and similar observances, to that class of pious practices which give the Achehnese religious calendar its distinctive texture — a calendar in which every month is named for some characteristic offering and in which the dead are never far from the thoughts of the living.
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.