My family has two important rituals during Eid Mubarak celebrations. First, we do sungkeman, where family members lay their heads in the laps of elders to apologize and ask for blessings. This symbolic gesture of forgiveness and togetherness brings us to tears. Secondly, older family members give money to younger ones as a sign of gratitude. Both rituals reinforce our family bonds and hold deep spiritual meaning for us by allowing reflection and generosity between generations.

1. Shanis Irsamayanti
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Draft Family Rituals
Family rituals is a tradition that being inherited from generation to generation. Every family
usually has some unique traditions that are different from other family. What is the first thing that
comes to your mind when asked about family rituals? Well, for me, it will be my family’s habit every
Eid Mubarak. My extended family has some family rituals that have special meaning for us such as
sungkeman during Eid Mubarak and giving money to the younger family member.
My family will have sungkeman as the symbol of apologize to each other after fasting for a
month. Every year we would stay in my grandma’s house in Klaten, Central Java, and after we did
Eid Mubarak prayers, we would do sungkeman. Everyone did sungkem consecutively to my
grandpa & grandma, the oldest aunt & uncle and ended with the youngest children. We did it by
laying our head in the elder’s lap and apologizing for every mistakes and ask for their pray for our
life and our future. It is such a sacred and has a deep meaning to us, most of us will shed tears when
we did it, especially to our own parents since we probably did a lot of mistakes to them. And then,
we would eat together after sungkeman, we would talk about each other’s life and have more
relaxed atmosphere.
The second family ritual that we always do is giving money to the younger family member.
It is as the symbol of being grateful because they can earn their own money. Older cousins who
already get a job usually give out their money too. Unlike sungkeman that being held right after
doing Eid Mubarak prayers, the time of giving money depends on the person who wants to give it.
Some of my uncles & aunts would give us the money after sungkeman. And also, it’s not only
happen in our family because the money will also be given to other relatives and neighbors who
came by to our grandma’s house.
Both of sungkeman and giving out money to the younger family are the family rituals that
will always happen in my family. My family rituals are very simple but special because it has a deep
meaning for us. It can also simply make us happy because it can strengthen our family bond.