1. Traditional
Wedding Ceremony
Two weeks ago I went to
Semarang to attend my cousin's wedding. I was there for four days. I was
involved in the preparation of the wedding ceremony . Like other Javanese
wedding ceremonies it has several complicated traditional rituals.
The first ceremony was
Siraman (bathing ceremony). Siraman means take a bath. The siraman ceremony was
organized in the afternoon. I was also involved in preparing the place and the
stuff needed. After the siraman , the bride was led to the wedding room. She
was dressed with a traditional woman's blouse and batik clothes. Make-up was
put on her by a traditioanl make-up woman who led the whole ceremony. The bride
looked very beautiful.
The second ceremony was
Midodareni (ceremony on the eve before the wedding) . The bride had to stay in
the room from 6. p.m to midnight accompanied by some elder woman giving her
useful advice. My other cousins and I also visited her for a while.
The next ceremony was
Peningsetan or Srah srahan (traditional engagement ceremony). The family of the
would bridge room visited the parents and the family of the would be bride.
They were bringing some gifts. After this ceremony, I helped the women in the
backyard. We packed the snacks for the party in the morning.
In the following
morning, Ijab ceremony (religious marriage consecration) was held. I sat right
behind the bride. I really did not want to miss this moment because it is the
most important phase in the wedding . After ijab, there were some Javanese
ceremonies following the wedding celebration. They were Panggih, Balangan
suruh, Wiji dadi, Sindur binayang, Timbang, Tanem, Tukar, Kalpika, Kacar,
Kucur, Dahar Klimah, Sungkeman and Mertui ceremonies.
After the wedding
rituals, the reception followed. The newly wed couple received blessing and
greetings from the guests . The newly wed couple looked very happy, although
they couldn't hide their tired faces.
I went back home in the
evening by the last train. I went happily because I could attend my cousin's
wedding even helped the preparation.
2. A
Wedding Anniversary
It was Thursday evening. All family
members were at my parents’ house. My parents invited my uncle, my sister, my
brother, and me for their twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage. Everyone
was busy to prepare the family party.
Suddenly the rain poured heavily and a few minutes later the light was off. When the light was off, my brother was roasting lamb, my sister was putting all the plates, spoons, forks, and was preparing the table with food, and I was helping my mother decorate the cake and candles. Fortunately, my uncle called and when I told him what was happening, he said he would come with emergency lights. In the dark, my father looked for other candles and lit some of them. When my uncle arrived, we were still setting up the table. He turned the emergency lights on. Under the dim light, we were ready to sit around table full of food. My father lit the candle, together with my mother they blew out the candle, and we clapped, sang and prayed for their health and happiness. Then, we started to enjoy the food. While we were having the food, the light was on again. We cheered and clapped once again.
It happened when I
was still a kindergarten student. Every 17th August, my school organized a
poetry reading competition for its students as a part of Independence Day
celebration. As an active student, I then got my mother to sign me up in that
competition. My mother was hesitated since she didn’t sure that I could do
poetry-reading. However, in order to make me happy, she finally signed me up.
When the day of the
competition came, my heart beat so fast that I could hear it by my own. I was
the 8th participant to perform from 22 participants of the competition. I was
so nervous by the time my name was called. However, with the supports from my
mother and father, my confident arouse. I was reading a poem that was written
by my teacher, Bu Lili, entitled Merdeka. When I read the poem, the audiences
were so silent that made me a little bit nervous. Then, when I finished reading
the poem, everyone was cheered and gave
me the loudest applause I had ever heard. My mother and my father smiled at me
when I walked down the stage and said that my performance was superb.
Three hours after the performance, the list of poetry-reading competition winners was finally read by the committee. I was once again nervous at the time hoping that I was in the list. The committee started to announce the winners from the fourth up to the first place. When the committee announced the second place winner, my heart stopped beating for a while. I could not believe what I heard, she called my name. I was so happy that I could win the second place in the competition. I can see my parents, my teachers, and my classmates smiled at me proudly.
When I returned home, all family members congratulated me. I was so happy and even happier when my parents gave me a cute rainbow-colored schoolbag.
4. Joining the Football Competition
When I was in
the Junior High School, I joined two clubs. They were the Football Club and
the Karate Club. I joined those clubs because I love sports,
especially football and karate. I had football on Sunday mornings and
Karate on Mondays at 4 p.m.
One day my football
club joined a football competition. There were eight clubs joining the
competition. At first, our club won the match. Then, we had to defeat one club
to get to the final. Fortunately, we won again. After those two matches, we had
lunch in the cafeteria. We were so impatient to play in the last game. It was
the hard one because our opponent was very tough. Finally, we won the game with
a nice score of 3-2.We were so tired.
However, we were happy
and proud to be the winner of the competition. It was a very interesting
competition in my experience.
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