Jakarta, IO – To welcome the Eid-el-Adha, the Osing people who live in Kemiren Village, District of Glagah, Banyuwangi, has a tradition that they preserve up to the present day, the “mepe kasur”. This is the Javanese for “sunning the mattress”. All residents put out their mattresses under the sun on the same time for the whole day, before holding the Tumpeng Sewu or “A Thousand Conical Rice Piles” that night.
According to Liputan6, this year’s mepe kasur was performed on Thursday (21/06/2023). Soon after the sun rose, at about 07.00 a.m. WIB, the residents of Kemiren Village took out their distinctive red-and-black mattresses together and placed them under the sun. These mattresses have different thicknesses – 5 cm, 7 cm, and 8 cm. Once the mattresses were settled, the people recited prayers and splashed flower-infused water across the yard.
Adi Purwadi, a tribal elder in Keniran, explais that the purpose of this ceremony is performed by the Osing to avoid physical and spiritual illnesses. Mattresses are where people sleep and perform intimate relations, making them the closest physical and spiritual object to people. Threefore, they perform the ritual once a year on the date of 1 Dzulhijjah as part of the village’s overall physical and spiritual cleansing ritual.
This makes sense, as people sweat in their sleep and may spill things on their mattresses in the course of every day living. Heating the mattress with the sun’s rays kills off dangerous viruses and bacteria and keep the people sleeping on them healthy.
Adi explained the spiritual meaning behind the Osing people’s red and black mattress colors. “Red denotes courage, while black denotes harmony in the household. Parents of newlyweds gift these mattresses to their children as an expression that the marriage will be lasting and peaceful,” he said.
Mepe kasur is performed only until the sun is no longer strictly overhead, i.e. soon after noon. At this moment, all the mattresses must be placed back inside, or they will lose the cleanliness and blessing they have imbibed from the sun. After the mattresses are safely stored in their respective beds, the Osing continued the village cleansing by parading the barong effigy all along the village’s street and borders, starting from the Village Gate.
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After the Barong made its round throughout the village, the Osing then all visit the grave of Buyut Cili, their ancestral village founder and, they believe, their guardian spirit. Finally, they hold the Tumpeng Sewu field at night. Tumpeng or conical rice is a must in traditional rituals across Indonesia. The Osing version is topped with pecel pithik, grilled chicken topped with coconut shavings. The revelry is marked by the torches brightly lit at all villager’s gates. (un)