A wedding prep and an accident
Feb 28th, 2009 by Diar A.
About 4 months to go and I got a motorcycle accident one evening, a few days ago. So long now to beautiful chin and leg (although I wear hijab/headscarf as a Moslem woman, so bruises on my foot are no big deal).
Poor thing, I know. Even so, I’m so much grateful that the accident happened long before my wedding day (I consider 4 months and 3 weeks as “still long” ) instead of, I don’t know, a week before or so.
This reminds me of a bridal tradition in my country called ‘pingitan’. I have no idea what better English term for that is, but I can tell you that it’s quite an interesting tradition. I think it’s originally practiced by the Javanese, but later people of other tribes carry out the tradition as well.
During one week before the wedding day (this one-week process is what we call pingitan), the brides and grooms are not allowed to meet each other, and the bride-to-be is not permitted to go out of the house. She’s not even allowed to meet non-family members, although in the said house (usually her parents’). This way is used, one of the purposes, to avoid anything unintended happen (traffic accident, for instance, like what I’ve recently experienced). It is also believed that practicing this tradition will make everybody (especially the groom) be surprised of how the bride look like on the D day (more of “How stunningly different and gorgeous she is!” kind of surprise) for they have not met for a week.
The pingitan tradition is more flexible now in this modern era, in which brides are allowed to communicate with her future spouse, even though only through phone or IM, for example. They are also tolerated to go out, as long as to non-long-distance destination and with the company of at least one family member.
I’m so very much interested to carry out this tradition (although I’m originally a Sundanese, not Javanese), yet it seems that Mr. H isn’t. I know this tradition is not a critical or a principal thing, so to practice it or not wouldn’t be a problem, but I want each of us to be surprised on our D day 
Oh well, we’ll figure that out later.
