The Kanduri Mo’lot is the Achehnese religious feast held in the month of Mo’lot — that is, Rabi’ al-awwal, the third month of the Mohammedan year — in celebration of the birth of the Prophet Mohammad. It is one of the principal annual kanduris of Acheh and gives its popular name to the whole month, which is regarded as specially binding on the Achehnese by reason of a legend concerning an embassy sent by the Sultan of Acheh to the Sultan of Turkey in the sixteenth century.
The celebration is held in every gampong, usually on the 12th of Mo’lot (the date assigned to the Prophet’s birth), though the public celebration may be shifted to a more convenient day. The guests, who are of course all men, assemble in the meunasah, usually in the forenoon and always in the daytime. The teungku and the leubes appear a little earlier than the others, as they have to recite the Mo’lot — a recitation called meuliku in Achehnese (from the Arabic dikr), just as the Javanese speak of the dikir maulud. Some of the maulids most in use have been handsomely lithographed at Cairo by Hasan at-Tochi Ahmad and published in a single volume, and from these the recitation is conducted. The teungku and the leubes then sing the hymn of praise, rising from their places while a vessel of incense is set among them, the savoury smoke blending with the chant in honour of the Apostle of God. After this hymn the kanduri Mo’lot closes with a long prayer which is to be found at the end of the Charapah anam.
As meat, which the Achehnese seldom eat on ordinary occasions, is indispensable for the idang Mo’lot, the kanduri is preceded by the slaughter of animals. Such general slaughterings take place on no other occasions except the last days of the eighth and ninth months and on a small scale at the “great” feast of the sacrifices on the 10th of Dhu’l-Hijja. The host has, besides the public guests, his private guests — all those of his relatives who live elsewhere and feel disposed to partake in the kanduri, for according to the adat they are at liberty to regard the kanduri Mo’lot of a member of their family as their own.
A specially great kanduri Mo’lot is held on the actual Mo’lot day at the tomb of Teungku Anjong in Gampong Jawa. On this occasion one or more buffaloes are slaughtered, and besides those who assemble in the dah (prayer-house) to partake of the feast, sundry ulamas have a share therein, pieces of meat being sent them by the guardian of the tomb. Two other principal annual kanduris are held at the same sacred tomb — the kanduri on the 14th of Puasa and the kanduri Aja Eseutiri on the 18th of Rajab in honour of Teungku Anjong’s consort Fatimah bint Abdarrhaman ‘Aidid — making the tomb a continuing centre of Achehnese religious life.
In Java the superstitious belief is common that no work of importance should be initiated before the 12th day of Mo’lot, and at the word “acceptance” in the closing prayer those present snatch some rice from the dishes which stand prepared hard by, this rice being afterwards employed as a remedy in sicknesses of children. Neither custom, Snouck Hurgronje notes, is ever met with in Acheh. The whole of Mo’lot, however, together with its “younger brothers” Adbe Mo’lot and Mo’lot Seumeulheueh (the two following months), is considered suitable for feasts, and a gampong may hold its kanduri Mo’lot in any one of the three.
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.