Selamatan

Also: slametan, wayang

The selamatan is a shared meal that Javanese and Malay families hold for births, weddings, funerals, new homes, harvests and any change in life. Neighbours gather, a prayer is said by an elder or imam, and a symbolic food, often a cone of yellow rice, is cut and shared. The idea is to keep the community in balance and to ask protection from harm. The meal is eaten together, and guests take some home in a banana-leaf parcel. Anthropologists have studied it as the centre of Javanese religious life, in which Islam, older beliefs and neighbourliness meet.

Region: Southeast Asia

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