Ruwatan to Banish the Bad Luck
Javanese has various traditions, which related to rites or ceremonies. Many aspects of life of the Javanese begin with ceremonies. A ceremony seems become the initiation to start, end or avoid something. Among ceremonies, there is one, which is very important to perform. For those who believe, this ceremony will improve the quality of life. Not only will it improve the economic aspect but also health, relationship, peace, welfare and luck. The ceremony is Ruwatan.
Ruwatan comes from the old Javanese language ‘mangruwat’. The meaning is to release or set free. The ceremony is essentially to pray to the God, asking protection and prevention from all disturbances. Therefore, the interesting things are on how the rite is performed and who should be involved.
For whom is the rite?
Before we discuss how the rite is performed, we have to know firstly on who should be involved. This is important because ruwatan should be performed for persons or thing with certain condition. This rite is for persons which is in the ‘sukerta’ category. The sukerta category can be ontang-anting (a child without brother or sister), kedhana-kedhini (a son and a daughter), kembang sepasang (two daughters), sendhang kapit pancuran (two daughters and a son, in which the son is born after the first daughter), pancuran kapit sendhang (two sons and a daughter, in which the daughter is born after the first son). The persons with sukerta category or we can call them as the patients, have bad luck that should be neutralized. The goal of this ceremony is to banish the sukerta (bad luck).
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The Procession
The one who lead the ceremony is usually a person with spiritual ability. Commonly, a dalang (puppeteer of traditional Javanese shadow plays) leads the procession. The procession of ruwatan consists of four basic steps. The first is taking a bath. The patients wear pasatan (bathing cloth), the leader pours water over them. The water consists of kanthil (magnolia), mawar (rose) and melati (jasmine) flowers. The second step is hair cutting. Only a few hairs are cutted as symbol to banish the sukerta. The third is floating the pasatan and the hair to the sea. The fourth is the Javanese shadow puppet performance.
The shadow puppet performance is not merely a show but it consists of prays. It plays certain story namely Murwakala. It tells the beginning of the calamity occurs on earth. It is Batara Kala, a giant god, who asks food to Batara Guru, the king of gods. Batara Guru is afraid if Batara Kala will eat everything. Therefore, Batara Guru makes limitations on who can be eaten by Batara Kala. The human who may be eaten are those in the sukerta category. Then, Batara Kala comes down to earth to find victims. However, he gets no victim because Ki Dalang Kandhabuwana (the puppeteer) protects the people in the sukerta category. Ki Dalang Kandhabuwana spells magic words (a prayer) to defeat and banish the evil power of Batara Kala. The evil power is vanished, this also banish the sukerta from the patients.
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