13 Children With Gymbal Hair Diruwat At Dieng Culture Festival

Dieng Culture Festival (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The Dieng Culture Festival (DCF) XIV in 2024 was again held at the Arjuna Temple Complex, Dieng Kulon Village, Banjarnegara Regency, Central Java, Saturday, August 24. A total of 13 Gymbal-haired or greedy children underwent mass ruwatan in the event.

Before undergoing mass ruwatan, the children with gimbal hair, all of whom were women, were first mistaken for the yard of one of the Dieng traditional stakeholders, Mbah Sumanto, to the Arjuna Temple Complex.

Furthermore, the gimbal-haired children underwent a ruwatan procession which began with a prayer led by Mbah Sumarsono as a Dieng traditional stakeholder and continued with the arrangement carried out by women, in this case, female officials and official wives as symbols of giving blessing prayers.

Meanwhile, for the procession of cutting or shaving the hair of gibbons is carried out by men, namely officials and families of Gymbal-haired children accompanied by two traditional stakeholders, namely Mbah Sumanto and Mbah Sumarsono.

The procession ended with a patch of hair at Balekambang Telaga which is not far from the Arjuna Temple Complex.

Head of the Tourism and Culture Office (Dinparbud) of Banjarnegara Regency, Tursiman, said the children who underwent the ruwatan had gimbal hair or sharp hair since birth.

"Well, the hair is not common in society, but a gift, a gift for the local community," he said on the sidelines of the gimbal hair ruwatan procession.

He said the efforts that must be made so that the children's hair grows normally in the form of a shampooing ritual starting with packaging.

In addition, he said, children who will undergo ruwatan must convey their requests.

"The request was not from the request of the parents or their own request, but from their inside wishes, not realizing it. Earlier there were those who wanted to meri (itik child, ed.), wanted a lengger, and so on, if that was not followed, their hair would grow again," he said, quoted from ANTARA.

He hopes that through this ritual, children who undergo ruwatan will no longer have gimbal hair, so they can grow normally.

In addition, he said, the ritual is a hereditary culture that must be preserved and visitors can also see the tourism atmosphere in Dieng.

Regarding the number of participants, he said that a total of 13 children came from Magelang, Wonosobo, Banyumas, and the majority from Banjarnegara.

"There are a lot of registered ones, there are 30s, but this year it's quite 13, we curated elementary school children down. Earlier there were parents, but we didn't accept the old ones," said Tursiman.

The mother of one of the ruwatan participants, Erna Murniyati, said that her son, Qiana Alisha Chandani (5), who is the third daughter with gimbal hair since he was 4 months old, started with a high fever and seizures.

Setelah rambut Qiana mulai gimbal, dia mencoba menyelesirnya namun kesokan harinya kembali gimbal dan hal itu terus berulang.

"I asked my parents, it turned out to be a game, I didn't dare to shave either," said he, who is a resident of Pekunden Village, Banyumas Regency.

According to him, Qiana likes animals and when eating does not like to use side dishes but eats white rice or boiled cassava.

In addition, he said, Qiana did not want to wear a good shirt and did not want to take a shower, so it seemed like a blow.

"His request for two meri with pink yupi love candy in one box, never changed it since childhood," said Erna.