Christmas in Muslim Java

By Ronald Eustice

What’s it like to spend Christmas in the world’s largest Muslim country half way around the world? My most memorable Christmas was spent at a Javanese wedding reception in a farming village on the slopes of an active volcano near Salatiga, Indonesia.

Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country with around 180 million people. Two- thirds of the Indonesians live on the island of Java. Three thousand islands are strung together like a giant emerald necklace and span 3,000 miles across the blue southwest Pacific. The Indonesian people speak over 250 distinct languages and come from 300 separate ethnic groups. Eighty-five percent of the people are Muslim, making Indonesia the world’s largest Islamic country. Indonesia was under Dutch colonial rule for 350 years and a fledgling dairy industry developed.

On January 2, 1987, my wife Margaret and I began our Javanese journey by departing from the Twin Cities airport with 3 small children and 19 suitcases. After a thirty-six hour flight and an overnight layover in Hong Kong, we arrived in Jakarta, the capitol of Indonesia. That was the beginning of a three-year assignment on the island of Java as a technical advisor on a Land O’ Lakes sponsored project.

The project was to develop the largest dairy herd in Asia which would eventually grow to more than 12,000 US Holsteins most of which came from the Upper Midwest. About 5,000 head were kept on a very modern “breeding farm,” and the rest were parceled out in groups of 6 to some 1200 farmers, none of whom had previous cattle experience. The project was funded by a very wealthy Chinese businessman who was well connected with then President Soeharto.

My job was to train extension educators. In all, I trained a total of around 250 young Indonesian men and women who in turn taught the local farmers in basic dairy husbandry skills. Each of my students was then assigned to supervise one of 120 small farmer units scattered in villages on the slopes of Mt. Merapi and Mt. Merbabu.

The first 1,000 head of very pregnant heifers were scheduled to arrive by ship in early February, 1987. Within weeks the size of the new herd would double. The plan was for another 1,000 head to arrive every other month for the next 3 years. We hastily began to develop an infrastructure to support this historic effort to provide the Indonesian people with beef and dairy products. The overly optimistic and very aggressive project would have been doomed without the very capable support from my colleagues Leroy Koppendrayer of Princeton, MN and Dr. Gene Monfore of Mobridge, SD.

My students were single men and women in their early 20’s. It was only natural that relationships would develop and weddings would occur. In December 1988, I received an invitation to attend the wedding of one of my students. The invitation listed the date as December 25^th, but the hour was missing. I was told that there was no fixed time and that I should show up early, plan to spend the day, and bring the family. It sounded like an adventure and after all, I’d never been to a Muslim wedding. Our children, however had other expectations on how to spend Christmas Day.

On Christmas Eve, we attended mass at the Catholic Church in Salatiga. Javanese children in costumes enacted the Christmas story before a very crowded congregation. After mass, we hurried home to open presents and await phone calls from family members back home. About 20 of our expatriate friends came over for a traditional American Christmas dinner and then it was off to bed to get rested for the Javanese wedding.

Christmas Day was beautiful. The temperature was in the low 80’s and the sun was shining. What a great day for a wedding and a family trip. We brought umbrellas because we knew that despite the sunshine we could expect a daily down pour before dusk.

The wedding was in a village about an hour away from our home. As we drove up the mountain slope, we met hundreds of Javanese farmers carrying produce to market on their backs and sometimes on their heads. There were bananas, papayas, pineapples, onions, potatoes, chickens and goats. Often the cargo weighed nearly as much as the person carrying it. We arrived at the wedding around 10:00 and were greeted by dozens if not hundreds of local farmers. Most of my students were there. We were the only foreigners in the crowd. There was an abundance of food; fresh fruit, vegetables, chicken, goat and beef. Alcoholic beverages and pork are both forbidden under Muslim law. All that was missing was evidence of a bridal party, but we were told not to worry because they would be coming. When I asked when the actual wedding ceremony was to occur, I was told, belum meaning “not yet.” The word belum (pronounced “bloom” is used often in Indonesia and keeps life at a slower pace than we Westerners are used to.

The afternoon proceeded calmly with more food, plenty of socializing, but still no evidence of a wedding party. Word was that they were in the nearby town, but no one seemed to really know or even care. By 3:30 we began to get concerned. Our children ages 4 to 10 began to become impatient. Their idea of Christmas was not spending it on a mountain top at the edge of civilization. And we had plane tickets to leave on an early flight the next day for the island of Bali to begin our annual vacation. We had delayed departure by a day so we could attend the wedding. Hopefully the bride and groom would arrive soon, at least before it started raining.

Dark clouds were gathering on the horizon and a cool breeze began to rustle the fan shaped palm tree fronds as the drizzle began. Despite the proximity to the Equator, weather in Java can be cool especially when it rains. And then the torrential rains came. Everyone headed for shelter. No one could leave by foot, bicycle or automobile. The rain was so heavy that one could barely see the next house. All we could do was wait for the rain to stop so we could head home.

We’re still not certain when the bride and groom showed up for the wedding, but rumor has it that late that evening there was a ceremony. Our children were happy to be at home playing with the lego and cabbage patch dolls that they had received as Christmas presents. Sorry we missed the wedding.