Academic Writing Assignment

Name Class Reg. No : Wantri Fajar Pratiwi : 10 Dik A : 2215102136

Third draft, April, 18th, 2012

Determining Marriage Date Based on Javanese Primbon, Is That Relevant? Have you been planning your marriage date? How would you determine the appropriate date to hold your marriage? It is well-known that Javanese tribe has a unique custom to determine the marriage date. Javanese is one of the tribes that exists in Indonesia. Similar with other tribes, Javanese also has a unique custom which is to determine the marriage date. Some native Javanese today still have belief that marriage date can influence ones future life, whether for the marriage couple or their family. For example, if a couple of Javanese descendant chooses one day for their marriage but that day is actually a bad day according to Javanese primbon; therefore, their domesticity would not run well or even one of the couple would die soon. For a marriage date, based on Javanese primbon, there are some complicated ways to choose the appropriate date for the couple to state their marriage vow. Javanese marriage date is selected based on a term called primbon. There are various versions of primbon book, for example, Centhini book, Sabda Pandhita, R. Tanojo, Betaljemur, Adam Makna, and R. Soemodidjojo. According to Javanese primbon, there are several days which are forbidden to be selected for a marriage date. Firstly, it is the date when a family member passed away, whether the passed-away-family-member is the couples grandmother, granddaughter, or grandparents-in-law. Next is some days in certain months, for example in Jumadil Akhir (Islamic month), Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are the bad days to hold a marriage. The third is several days in certain years, for example in year Alip, pon Thursday and pahing Saturday are bad days. Similarly, date 6th, 11th, 18th in Sura month is also believed as the bad dates to hold a marriage. Besides, date 29th and 30th in every month also need to be avoided when a couple intends to hold a marriage. Illogically, until now there is no empiric reason why those dates have to be avoided for a marriage date. Once more, it is just based on the primbon which is still believed by some native Javanese. For Javanese who still strongly believe in primbon, there are some benefits that can be achieved if a Javanese couple determines their marriage date based on what written on primbon are. For instance, there are some benefits if a couple chooses Jumadil Awal, Rajab, Ruwah, or Besar month as their marriage month. It is written on primbon that they are the prodigious months, so for couple who decides

to manage their marriage date on those months, their future life would be safe, full of happiness and luck, prosperous, rich, and full of magnificence. This phenomenon is bit nonsense since it is naturally not logic. How can a marriage date influence someones life? However, somehow the Javanese descendants still strongly believe in using primbon since it is based on their ancestral heritage. If they do not obey the custom, although it is actually not logic, they will be considered as the ones who do not respect on their ancestry. Unfortunately, this custom then becomes a strict pole and builds assumptions within the Javanese that there are no other good months (although there are 12 months in a year) except the months which are predicted by primbon. In fact, one year consists of at least 365 days and all days are good as long as people can spend it wisely. In modern life, mostly this kind of marriage date determination has already been becoming obsolete. However, people are living in a diversity, with various culture existing, there are still found some who still comply with their ancestry. If people look further about this phenomenon, actually there are two points of view showing that determining marriage date based on Javanese primbon is irrational. In religious view for example Moslem, believing fortune telling, including primbon is proscribed. It can lead people to believe in something else instead of their God Almighty. In the other words, why people must believe in something which seems illogical and irrational while they still have a God Almighty that actually will take care of them? Besides, people will be considered doing a massive sin if they believe in fortune telling more than they believe to their God. Therefore, if people still believe that a marriage date can influence ones life, they are actually disavowing her God. In a modern point of view with modern people, modern way of life, and modern thinking, it is not relevant to follow the traditional way to determine a marriage date because there is no logical connection among them. Moreover, this is 21st century, globalization is developed fast and people should be smarter to think logically. Some cases have also proved that marriage date doesnt influence someones life at all. One Javanese couple in Bekasi, for example, they did not look at primbon prediction when determining the marriage date, but until now, this couple is still together and they never find something wrong in their 25 years of marriage. This is sufficient to prove that a marriage date doesnt surprisingly influence ones future. In summary, determining marriage date based on Javanese primbon still exists for Javanese who still believe in their ancestral heritage. Nevertheless, there is no logical or empirical reason why a marriage date can influence someones future life. It is only based on fortune telling which is still believed by some Javanese. In this modern era, it seems illogical and irrational to match the marriage date based on fortune telling because actually all days in a year are blessed as long as people can spend the days wisely. However, how not relevant it is, this is still a traditional custom. It is a local wisdom and an ancestral heritage that cannot be vanished by one side. Consequently, other people cannot forbid Javanese to determine a marriage date based on what they believe.

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