Page:Christiaan Snouck Hurgronje - The Achehnese - tr. Arthur Warren Swete O'Sullivan (1906).djvu/256

 8° Kanduri Bu (Shaʿbān). Throughout the whole of the Indian Archipelago this month is dedicated to the commemoration of the dead. This does not imply grief for their loss, but rather care for their souls' repose, which is not inconsistent with merrymaking. This solicitude for the welfare of the departed exhibits itself by the giving of religious feasts. According to the official or learned conception this is done in order to bestow on the deceased the recompense earned by this good work; according to the popular notion it is to let them enjoy the actual savour of the good things of the feast.

Feasts for the benefit of any given deceased person are, as we whallshall [sic] presently see, only held during a short period after his death. In Acheh this period is even shorter than elsewhere, consisting of only 100 days. In Java there are further commemorations on the first two anniversaries and the 1000$th$ day. Under the influence of Mekka it has even become the custom to celebrate the anniversaries of the departed so long as pious children or grandchildren survive to cherish their memory.

In the end, however long the interval, the deceased is personally forgotten, but is included in the ranks of "ancestors" or "spirits of the departed", occasionally commemorated at odd times according to the fancy of individuals, but as a rule during a single month in the year set apart for the purpose. The choice of the eighth month of the year for this commemoration, which in Arabia generally takes place in the seventh month, seems a further corroboration of the introduction of Islam into Acheh from the Deccan.

The name of the month Shaʿbān in many native languages is borrowed from this pious custom. In Javanese it is called Ruwah or month of all spirits, and in Achehnese Rice-kanduri, since on some one day of this month every household holds in honour of the departed a religious feast, in which rice forms the principal dish.

Rice is, indeed, the chief comestible in many other kanduris and in purely secular feasts, but in Acheh the name of "religious rice feast" is specially given to the kanduris in honour of the dead, whether in the 8$th$ or in other months. Whenever any chance occurrence inclines them to show their ancestors that they are not forgotten, the people cook rice and its accessories and invite the teungku to consecrate such