Our Baby Shower!

In Sunday last weekend, October 16, we celebrated Aretha's 7th months of pregnancy by having a Baby Shower at our apartment. There were around 20 of us, and our dear friends had made the efforts to attend the Shower despite the distance of our place from theirs. The Shower turned out to be a multi-national gathering with our friends from India, Nepal, Belgium, Nigeria, and of course; Thailand, and Indonesia. Our parents also helped us prepare the baby shower with traditional Javanese ritual with equipments and an array of food brought from Indonesia.

Unlike Western-style baby shower, Javanese baby shower requires real shower. Aretha was showered by her parents, mom-in-law and husband with a bucket of water filled with 7 types of fragrant flowers (her mom brought them from Indonesia).

After that she has to wear 7 types of Javanese costumes / batik in which each costume represent the wish to the baby for having specific sorts of character, for instance intelligence, devotion, peace, happiness, prosperity, good looks, etc, but most importantly, the symbol of the last batik signifies simplicity. Everyone are expected to express their disagreements for each costume by yelling out, “No” when the MC (Aretha's mum) asks, “Does this clothes suit her?”. Not until the 7th costume, which then the answer should be “Yes”.

Some interesting ritual is the dropping of 2 eggs beneath the Javanese clothes that symbolize our good wish that the baby can be delivered without major problems. In the old days, we believe that if the eggs don’t break, the baby would be a boy. Whereas if the eggs do break, it would be a girl. (Obviously, during those old days Sonograms were not yet invented).

Interestingly enough, during this rituals what happened was that the eggs didn't break (Believe it or not?!) ;-)

The next ritual is the breaking of the golden coconut by the baby's father that symbolizes our good wish that in time and after the baby delivery, the mother and the baby will remain safe and healthy. As you see in the picture below, the golden coconuts are craved with the character of Kamajaya and Ratih Goddess, which represent our wish for the baby to have their characteristics such as loyalty, intelligence, heroism, handsomeness, etc.

The next ritual is the making of rujak procot (a sort of fruit dish with spices), which symbolically done by the mother-to-be. The fruit for the dish consists of 7 types, which represent the 7th months of pregnancy.

Last but not least is prayers by the father and mother in-law. After the ritual finished, the guests were presented with a variety of Javanese/Indonesian food, including tumpeng (yellow rice) that are usually served during baby shower.

Prior to the closure of the event, three Javanese crafts were given away in the 'game' time. Aretha is playing the Javanese music on the tape, and while she has her eyes closed, the gifts were tossed around. She decides when the music stops, and when it does, whoever carries the gift is the winner.