Page 32 - JaKita 08st Edition 2021
P. 32
32 ART & CULTURE
Akeke, The Betawi Tradition
to Welcome a Baby
For people of Betawi, akeke is not merely an event of naming and
cutting the hair of a baby. It is a traditional ceremony to celebrate
the life of a person.
here are plenty of ways to welcome a newborn.
In Betawi, we call it akeke (or mostly known as
T aqiqah). This celebration ceremony to give
name for the baby and shave newborn’s hair is still
Akekah being preserved to this day.
A Betawi cultural practitioner Yahya Andi Saputra
said, besides as to perform one of Islamic shariah,
akeke is a traditional ceremony to give name and
shave hair of a newborn baby with several Betawi
A baby naming and hair shaving rituals. “Akeke is a traditional ceremony as one’s start
ceremony. to embark life,” he said to JaKita.
Carried out once in a lifetime.
According to him, the celebration holds sacred goal
Conducted on the seventh or to make the baby become devoted to Allah SWT
fourteenth day after the baby’s birth. since his early life, as well as a redemption for a
A goat will be sacrificed for a baby child. “Sacrificing an animal for akeke will become a
girl, two goats for a baby boy. shafa’ah for their parents during the judgement day,”
said Yahya.
Begin with the scrape hands ritual.
Shaving/cutting baby’s hair. The celebration will also increase the intimacy and
Completed with the story telling kinship between the communities as they gather and
interact in a place to welcome a new member of the
of the Prophet of Muhammad SAW family.
and reading of shalawat during the
shaving ritual.
Scrape hands
Before starting the akeke ceremony, family members
Infographic/Tommy K.R
8th EDITION 2021
Sarana Informasi Pemerintah Provinsi DKI Jakarta
