Ritual is a series of actions that
are always performed in the same way, especially as part of a religious
ceremony (Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, page 1264). Ritual is some
activity that people doing to celebrate something or to respect about something
especially the ancestors. People have different ways to do some ritual and also
they have different aim. Ritual is like some tradition and the part of life,
because some ritual can be meaning in some belief and people who always doing
some ritual think that ritual is important thing to do because this people will
think that from this ritual their life will be safety. In Indonesia, that has
many cultures and also different region will has different habit about ritual,
because they live in different place so they will have different activities
about the way of life.
In my hometown, ritual is like the
rice in this life, people in my hometown cannot divorced from the word ‘ritual’
because people in my hometown have high belief about supernatural or invisible
being. They respect to ancestors that make their belief that the ancestors or
invisible being will help them to keep their life and sometimes will safe them.
They believe in ancestors’ fervency like they believe God. It is why
GunungKidul is famous as the supernatural place. For each village in
GunungKidul has ritual to respect the ancestor. They believe that ancestor
always helps them and ancestor usually stays in one place, for example in the
tree, ‘sendang’ (river), stone, house, etc. so they do some ritual to make the
ancestor happy and make that village safe and still. Also many story behind the
ritual why people believe and do some ritual, and this thing ‘ritual’ alive
around them and they conserve about it.
In my village people always do some
ritual to respect invisible being that they are alive around and they are part
of live. Like in my home, from old family (tradition from ancestor) doing some
ritual that hereditary, from old generation will give some respectful ritual to
keep the members of family from bad thing. This ritual called ‘netoni’ or
‘nge-mong- mongi’. Usually this ritual ‘netoni’ or ‘nge-mong- mongi’ will be
doing for each family member’s day of birth (dino weton). The day is not birth
day that people celebrate for every year but my family doing that for each the
day of birth, for example Rabu Wage (my day of birth), Setu Pon (Ayesa’s day),
Senen Legi (my father’s day), Selasa Pahing (my mother’s day), Jum’at Kliwon
(my grandpa’s day), Kamis Pon( my grandma’s day). Pahing, Pon, Wage, Kliwon, Legi
are the day base on Javanese calendar, they are paingan-days. On the day that
one of the member’s celebrate ‘netu’ the older (in my house is my grandpa) will
doing some ritual to keep the members of family far away from the evil, grandpa
will pray and who has the day and has enough age must fast to keep self from
negative energy. On the same day the woman in the house must cook special menu,
like ‘gudhangan’ (gudhangan is vegetable that cooked with scraped of coconut
and Javanese sugar ‘gula jawa merah’ and then the vegetables are bayam, leaf cassava,
and string bean) , ‘thiwul’, ‘uwi godhog’(something like cassava that
boiled) or ‘telo’ (cassava), they are Javanese
traditional food that always there in the ritual.
The process of the ritual from the beginning
till the end.
1.
Prepare the food for ‘sesajen’ (thing as
ancestor meal) like ‘gudhangan’ and ‘uwi’ etc.
2. Put
that food in the ‘lemper’ (mortar)
3. Put
this food on the bed, put ‘sesajen’ or food on the bed who has the day of
‘netu’
4. After
everything is prepared, the older (my grandpa) will pray with the ‘sesajen’ on
the bed;
“Nini mong, kaki mong
Nini bodho, kaki bodho
Seng momong badane si… (Put the
name who has the day)
Ojo di mong pinggiring jurang lan
pinggiring kali
Mongen neng balaamba balanane sahadat
kalimah slamet
Amin…”
5. After
that the older (my grandpa) will clapped his hand to the bed three times
(nggeblek paturon kaping telu). It means say amen three times to make sure that
the ancestor will accede the pray. To make the ritual work.
6. Do
not let the person who has the day of ‘netu’ eat this meal or ‘sesajen’ because
if the person who has the day eat this meal it means nothing, and the pray will
not work. So after do some rituals this food must be given to another person,
or perhaps throw away in the river, but if the family want to eat, is allowed
but the person who has the day must not eat it.
This
words (sentences for pray) means that the preyed is hope for something good,
the older pray or like ask to the ancestor to help keep who has the day of
‘netu’. The older pray to ask about the safe of life for who has the day and
the older also ask to make life of who has the day to far away from the
dangerous thing, this words refer the evil. And the older hope about the
walfare.
People
in my family, especially my grandpa and the elder like my father and my mother
belief that ‘mong-mong’ base on the day of birth is importance because the one
thing that they believe, this ritual is mean to hope that the ancestor will
help to keep our life and it is like some important habit, because if this
ritual do not happen or the same way that if this ritual is not carried so the
life will not safe and dangerous, because evil in everywhere. There is some case;
it is about my ‘netu’. The day was Rabu Wage (Wednesday) my mother forgot about
my day of birth, and then I became so naughty and I am crying everyday and
always ask about something hard to get, like ask for some food that strange and
dangerous toy, I make my home crowded and my grandpa remain my mother that this
day is my day and if she does not make some ritual ‘neton’ the ancestor and the
‘batur’ will get angry, so my mother cook the food that usually there in the
ritual ‘neton’ and asked my grandpa to pray ‘nyajek-ke’. After ritual I became
normal like my daily habit, I am not crying again and became nice girl again.
My family believes that evil try to annoy me because this ritual is forgotten.
The one thing that my father always say to members of family that this house
where I live is there the ancestor and the ancestor will keep the family
members so the ‘mong-mong’ or ‘neton’ is the way to keep or to respect the
ancestor, and this ‘neton’ also present to friend (batur) of person has the day
so the ‘batur’ will always accompany and keep this person. ‘Batur’ is placenta
that buried near the house that exit when someone is born. My family believes
that ‘batur’ is alive to accompany the person who born with it and batur needs
ritual like ‘neton’ to keep this person from bad thing.
Summary;
‘Neton’ or ‘mong-mong’ is an
example of ritual to respect the ancestor or ‘batur’ that occur in my hometown,
especially in my home. This ritual use meal like ‘gudhandan’ , ‘ thiwul’ , ‘
uwi or telo (cassava)’ and then put them on the mortar and put on the bed also
make a pray to complete the ritual. This ritual has aim that from this ritual
hope for something positive that will be occur and the members of family will
kept by ancestor and also God. ‘Neton’ is happen on the day of birth thet has
had by family members. Person who has the ‘netu’ cannot eat the meal from
‘sesajen’ because the pray that made by older will not be working. In the end
of ritual the older will clap the hand on the bed, it means amen, and hopefully
the pray will be working.
Reference
Hornby, A.S (2006) Oxford Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, Oxford University
Press, UK. (Page 1264)
Informants
1. Name : Karto Sentono
Age : 87
Address : Piyaman, Wonosari, GunungKidul,
Yogyakarta
2.
Name :
Jasiyem
Age : 53
Address : Piyaman, Wonosari, GunungKidul,
Yogyakarta
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