HARI REBO KASAN: HOW TO OVERCOME CURSES

Air Anyir society in Bangka Island believe that the last Wednesday in Safar month is the day for God to release 3200 disasters to the world. That belief lets Air Anyir society to perform special ritual Hari Rebo Kasan or last Wednesday in Safar month to far-away them from all disasters.

The ritual is started on 07.00 am when every citizen goes to masque bringing tray with red cover. Inside tray there are 6 plates with ketupat, sayur (vegetables), fish, chicken, cake and fruits. Bangka citizen call the tray as dulang.

One family contributes one dulang. Then all dulang will be collected in the masque to be eat together after ritual completed. This habit in Bangka Island is called as Sepintu Sedulang. Eating together is called as Nganggung. The visitor will get first opportunity to eat the food.

The ritual Rebo Kasan is started with azan announced from the masque, and then followed by praying. Azan and praying are Islamic value which influence Bangka tradition.

At the mid session of the ritual, a paper written by wafak praying will be dipped into water inside ceramic bowl. Wafak praying is written using dawat ink which bought in Mekkah, Saudi Arabia. Water inside cermic bowl is called as wafak water, coming from 7 ceramic bowls representing 7 holy water source. In the end of ritual, the water will be shared to every participant.

Ritual to reject disaster is perform by pull-out the ketupat tolak bala (ketupat for rejecting disaster). The ketupat is unique packing for rice with special processing. But in this ritual ketupat used is only packing without rice inside. The ketupat for this ritual is special because made of 2 coconut leafs. If you pull out every leaf, you can release together its bonding. Each ketupat will be handed by each pair of citizen, then special praying will be delivered with standing position. The praying is to expect God to look after all society and far-away from all disaster such as pain, accident or natural disaster.

Just after the praying completed, all pair of citizen will pull out together the ketupat until the plait is released. This activity will be done together by all society with happy and laughing. All coconut leaf ex ketupat will be collected into special place.

After releasing ketupat is completed, the ritual will closed by eat together or nganggung.

Note; for your info, Bangka island is located in Malacca Strait, close to Sumatera Island. In the past Bangka was a biggest producer (with Belitung Island) of tin.

Reference: KOMPAS Daily Edition 24 March 2007 Page 39, written by L. Andreas Sarwono.

(Osa Kurniawan Ilham, Balikpapan-Borneo, 10 Sept 09)