Lebaran Tradition in Buton Island


Wherever the birds fly, they will back to their nest. That’s a popular saying to describe the behavior of the people in my family. I was born and grow up in Buton Island, the small coastal area which located at South East Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. Since the age was young, many people in Buton Island crossed the ocean to the big city for different reasons. Even though they lived and created family in other island, sometime they need to come back to their island and to meet their relatives. Usually, they come back home together at Lebaran, the important ceremony in Islamic tradition. There are several reasons why Lebaran is very important for them.

The first is religious moment. Most people in my island are Islamic follower. Many historians noted that Buton is one of the ancient Islamic Kingdom which has long tradition throughout the Indonesian history. Now we still find the remains of that tradition in many people who devoted themselves in Islamic traditions. The historian also noted that Buton people had unique traditions in fasting month, a ritual that started a month before Lebaran. Beside that, there is also a traditional believes that fasting month and Lebaran must celebrated with our family. I don’t know since when this tradition began, but this tradition became the magnet to pull every people from my island to come back home and celebrated Lebaran together.

The second is reflective reason. In my family, Lebaran is not only as religious day, but also a reflective moment. In that day, we reflect our past life whether we ever do something wrong to our relatives or not. In that day, we must reflect everything that we ever done in the past life. We apologize to every people that we know. We meet the elder and say sorry for whatever our behavior. Surprisingly, the elder meet us too to say the same words. For me, this is the most memorable moment when all of member of the families ask for forgiveness each other and keep the commitment that we not repeat all mistakes that we ever done before.

The third is social reason. Beside the reflective moment, Lebaran also has a social impact. Many people from other island come to my hometown and start to discuss about the future. This tradition is strengthening our families bond and becoming the trigger to discuss several problems in my hometown. Last year, many people from the outside island agree to give donations to build several mosque and educations facility. I think this is a good tradition which has impact to our hometown.

In conclusion, Lebaran is very important in my family for several reasons such us religious moment, reflective reason, and social reason. I believe Lebaran increase our solidarity and respect to our relatives and also enrich our human kind.(*)

1 komentar:

Anonim mengatakan...

Kayaknya tulisan ini bagian dari tugas writing di LBI..:D

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