The Javanese wedding comes in many forms and ways depended on what province the bride and the groom come. Basically for Orang Jawa of Malaysia, they are having several steps for the wedding, start from proposing manner, siraman day and wedding reception. Here is the details of these ceremonies :
1. The proposing dayIn Javanese tradition, it is required for the groom parent to come over to the bride residence and meeting her parents for the purpose of asking their daughter hand to marry the groom. But without the groom-to-be presence. Considering this proposing as the first step of whole wedding program, therefore this must be done in a proper and acceptable manner by both party, particularly for the bride's family.
The parent of the groom would need to aware with all the details related to the proposing, particularly in what they are asking for. What required items are mostly would be the Al-Quran, telekung(female Muslim attire for praying), jeweleries, cakes, fruits, etc.
Proposing items sent by male side to the bride to be.
2. The Bathing Ceremony (Siraman)
The next arrangement for Javanese wedding tradition is Siraman, the ceremony of bathing the bride prior to the wedding. This ceremony is intended to held around noon time, separately between the bride and groom, but need to start doing it at the same time.
This bathing ceremony is symbolizing the bride and the groom would be purely clean themselves physically and mentally prior to their wedding while at the same time, asking permission and blessing from both parents.
The bride will experience the bathing ceremony before proceed with next stages.
The water for the siraman is required to be collected from seven differences water spring and added by also seven differences flowers such as rose, jasmine, etc. In Javanese wedding ritual, before ending the siraman ceremony, both parents would cut little piece of the bride and groom's hair and put them in one small clay jug to bury in front part of the bride house.
3. Wedding Reception
3. Wedding Reception
Following to the Javanese tradition, the both family members would be entering the reception hall guarded with one man dancing the Javanese traditional dance and two little flower girls. The composition of both family line would be :
- Mother and uncle as the parent of the groom
- The parent of the bride
- Bride and groom
- Sisters of the groom
- Sisters of the bride and her husband
- Brothers of the groom
- Brothers of the bride
The bride and the groom on their Pelaminan chairs.
The bride and groom would be sitting on stage at their Pelaminan chair, both parents would be sitting on right and left side of the bride and groom and the brothers and sisters of both would be standing at the left side stage. Then, the guests could take some memorable photos of bride and groom.
In Javanese tradition, the bride and groom are not allowed to leave the house for five continuos days after their wedding. This is believed to avoid any unpleasant things that might happened.
A video clip shows Javanese wedding ceremonies and their traditional attire.
