Welcome TO OUR Blog*_*

Assalammualaikum and happy good time to all the readers. Thanks a lot as you spent your precious time to visit our blog. This blog will touch on the marriage decription among all the races in our beloved country, Malaysia. For your information, this blog is authorised under SHE101 project and we're supervised by our lecturer, Dr Yusri bin Yusup.
For this project, we're decided to choose MARRIAGE as our scope research...Emm why we chosed this title??? One of the reason is this title is so interesting to discuss certainly.(^_^)..In addition, Malaysia consists of various kind of races and our Prime Minister with his trade mark,'ONE MALAYSIA' tends to ensure malaysian are getting along and never feel differ even we're from different races, religion and etc. Based on that, we're decided to focus on marriage as this kind of subject is yet popular among all the races..So, we're really hope all of you can get some knowledges here and can share it also with others...perhaps!Enjoy the facts*_*!!!

INTRODUCTION

As all of us know, Malaysia is a multiracial country. Malaysia's population comprises many ethnic groups, with the statistics of :

Statistics:

Malay/ Bumiputera = 65%

Chinese = 26%

Indian = 8%

Others = 1%

Our study is mainly on Malay, Chinese and Indian only as it represents the largest ethnic groups in Malaysia. Our main interest is on the wedding ceremony and customs on all the three main races in Malaysia. Besides, we also discussed a little on Orang Asli, Ethnic Sabah and Ethnic Sarawak wedding ceremony. We think that wedding is a beautiful event, attended by many guests, family members and friends. It is also an event that can strengthen up relationship of the family members. Before we discuss further on our study, let us see the some important word glossary we often use in our study.

Glossary:

Wedding : The act or ceremony of marrying; marriage; nuptials.

Marriage : The social institution under which a man and woman establish their decision to live as husband and wife by legal commitments, religious ceremonies, etc.

All wedding are different of course, but nevertheless they also have many things in common. Besides studying on the wedding ceremony and customs, we also note down some of the important wedding taboos on all ethnic wedding ceremonies. Next, let's see what is the objective of our study?

Objective:

To understand, learn and have better understanding on the wedding history, ceremonies, customs and taboos on various ethnics in Malaysia (Malay, Chinese and Indian).

Every ethnic has their own unique in having their wedding ceremony. All the customs followed in the wedding ceremony was a great and valuable heritage and it should be passed down from generation to generation. The detailed of the wedding ceremony of each ethnic will be discussed below.

MALAY WEDDING

Malay's people are really having the strong faith with their culture where it give the impact into their life. For them, the wedding custom must be given much attention. Every event during wedding process taken must be celebrate rejoice and fully traditional. There are several levels for Malay's wedding that are:

• Merisik (Visit and Observe)
• Meminang (Propose)
• Bertunang (Engagement)
• Adat Berinai (Wearing Henna)
• Wedding Ceremony

Here, we will expose one by one of this unique customs that are still practice by Malay's people nowadays....

MALAY WEDDING:Merisik (Visit and Observe)

٩͡[๏̯͡๏]۶٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶٩͡[๏̯͡๏]۶٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶٩͡[๏̯͡๏]۶٩(•̮̮̃•̃)۶٩͡[๏̯͡๏]۶

This custom also call 'Meninjau' or 'Menengok' means observe or see. Its aimis to ensure that the girl is still single. This is important because in Islam, Muslim are not allowed to propose other's people fiancee. Therefore, it also can help the men to look foward with his future wife background which are related with domestic skill, culture, character, personality and importantly the similar belief in Islam. Commonly, this custom is done by his relatives like mother or uncle.

For girl side, there are some criteria that have to be looking foward before to accept the men propose to become her husband that are he should have the good background as a Muslim and have the good work for manage the big family one day.

The Condition to Propose Future Wife in Islam

1. That woman is not someone's fiancee.
2. That woman is not someone's wife.
3. That woman is not in 'iddah'.
4. That woman is not a person who 'haram' to marry for certain time, such as have the blood relation with wife or women who 'haram' to marry forever like her 'mahram'.

Sometimes, the men representative will give a ring that call im Malay 'Cincin Belah Rotan' and if she accepts, they will plan the date for next custom that is 'Peminangan'. But nowadays, the custom of 'Merisik' is seldom to be done because that couple already know each other, so they will proceed with 'Perminangan' to save the cost and time.

To know what are 'Peminangan' we continue it for next post.....see you!!

MALAY WEDDING: Meminang (Propose)

Once known that the girl has not been committed, the family will set a day for men to send a propose delegation. Managing person will be conducted by the immediate family of the men. Custom made for this pupose to state that they actually officially. Relatives of both parties will negotiate to set the date and time suitable for the engagement. In addition, discussion will also be held with repect to the delivary and the number of trips that will come to the ceremony of engagement to facilitate the women prepared during the engagement soon.

MALAY WEDDING: Bertunang (Engagement)

After discussions, the engagement ceremony will be held. The men will be represented by family members and closest relatives to the ceremony engaged. On that day, some feast will be held in conjunction with the engagement of the woman at home parties. Submissions like 'Barangan Hantaran' or presents consisting of 'Tepak Sirih' or 'Sirih Junjung', a ring, and some additional stuff like fruits, confectionery, clothing and many more will be given to the future wife.

By custom also, if the woman has an elder sister who still unmarried, the submission of presents will be give to her. This custom is called 'Langkah Bendul'. Number of presents are unique, which somewhat odd because the amount of five, seven, nine, eleven or thirteen, because it is said that the implication of even numbers are not good.Total delivery given by the woman will exceed the number of delivers by men. The custom to give expanses for wedding is also held during the engagement is conducted. However, sometimes it is run separately after a few weeks before the ceremony 'Persandingan' or reception conducted.

This ceremony will be initiated with representatives of the men to submit 'Tepak Sirih' to woman representatives and state their status officially. 'Pantun' or funny poem is often used in the ceremony as an intention to enliven that event. After the engagement was officially adopted, representatives of both parties will discuss the expanses of marriage, the engagement period and other related matters. The time period of engagement is usually one year or by consent of both parties.

The highlight of the ceremony during the engagement ring is put on the ring finger of future wife by the representatives of the male consisting of mother or sister. After that, engagement is already official.

MALAY WEDDING: Adat Berinai (Wearing Henna)

This custom is usually held in stages, that are:

Berinai Curi: held tree night before the wedding day with the nearest relatives only.

Berinai Kecil: held two night before the wedding day with relatives, neighbors and friends.

Berinai Besar: held the night before or after a wedding day for the special guest from the bride or groom invitation.

After the ceremony of 'Berinai' done, groom will not be spent at bride home, but will return to his home or if these groups come from far, the groom will spend the night at 'Penanggak' house, which mean houses close to the bride's house.