Goresan Pena: Juli 2014

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION ABOUT CUSTOM OF KARO PEOPLE IN BUMI TURANG, KARO LAND

WRITTEN BY:

HANNA MEYTI BR SITEPU

3.21.11.0003

ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT

AKI UNIVERSITY

SEMARANG 2014

A. About Karo Land

Karo Land is a regency in North Sumatera highland which the capital city is Kabanjahe. For this land is in high land, so the weather is cold and fresh. The majority of the livelihood of the society are being farmer. The agricultural products of Karo land are vegetables, fruits and kinds of flowers. The most popular product was orange fruit, which was called “Jeruk Medan”, but several recent years this product is not as much as before.

Karo people is known as friendly people. For Karo people, virtually every social relationship, even a chance encounter between strangers at the market, is conducted according to the principles of kinship. Upon meeting, two previously unacquainted Karo people will establish a kin relation to one another through the process of mutual interrogation known as ertutur. Each in turn asks for the other’s paternal (merga for men and beru for women) and maternal (bebere), clan and sub clan affiliations, home village, and in the case of a married woman, her husband’s clan. By tracing known, and often quite distant, relationship with agnatic and affinal kin, Karonese can usually discover person.

Bumi Turang is used to call Karo land. It is caused by the custom of Karo people who use turang to call the person that they have not known (to their opposite gender). Turang means brother or sister. It will be more polite if a young man call “turang” for a young woman that they haven’t known each other. If they want to know more each other, they usually introduce their self that in Karo called “ertutur”.

B. Karo People Activities and Custom

Karo people have some unique activities and custom. So, in this paper the writer is going to give a brief description of them.

1. Kerja Tahun or Merdang Merdem (Yearly Party)

Kerja Tahun or Merdang Merdem is Karo traditional party. Kerja in English means party. It is usually held once a year. In the past, this party was celebrated as the form as thanksgiving to the Beraspati gods, for him to bless the agricultural activities of Karo people. Sembiring (1992) states that “Kerja tahun adalah suatu bentuk ritual atau upacara penyembahan kepada Sang Pencipta atau Beraspati Taneh (dewa yang berkuasa atas tanah menurut agama Pemena atau agama asli suku Karo) yang bertujuan menyukseskan setiap tahapan aktivitas pertanian dan manifestasi dari harapan akan hasil panen yang berlimpah”.

Nowadays, Kerja Tahun has different application as before. Karo people celebrate this party as the gathering to their family. So, the family who lived in difference town will meet when the time of Merdang Merdem is coming. The time of the party also different each villages or sub-districts. In some villages, it usually celebrated on January, April, June, July, August and October. It is depend on the deal of each sub-district government and the custom figures.

In Kerja Tahun, we have some activities. In the past, Karo people celebrated Kerja Tahun for a week. It means that we have several activities during the party.The festival lasts six days, with a seventh day of rest.

The first day: Cikor-kor - the participants search for “kor-kor”, a specific insect found in the soil under trees. These are eaten. The second day: Cikurung - the participants search for 'kurung', animals of the rice fields. These are also eaten. The third day: Ndurung - the participants search for 'nurung', fish of the rice field or river (no specific species of fish, just whatever happens to be found). These too are eaten. The fourth day: Mantem - 'slaughter' - livestock such as pigs, buffalo, and cows are slaughtered. These are eaten as the main menu. The fifth day: Matana - the main day of celebration. Following four days of feasting, matana is the day for music and dancing. Gendang Guro-guro Aron music is performed, and the perkolong-kolong sing. The perkolong-kolong are skilled male and female singers who perform Karonese music facing each other, often making jokes in between songs. After the perkolong-kolong have performed, couples (married couples with their spouses, and those who are not yet married with their impal) from each of the five Karo clans (merga silima) dance in the same manner. The sixth day: Nimpa - cimpa cakes are prepared and consumed. Cimpa is Karonese traditional food made by glutinous rice powder, with palm sugar and coconut jell inside. The cake will be wrapped in singkut leaf. In some villages, Karo people prepare Lemang as the food, not cimpa. Lemang is Karonese traditional food made of glutinous rice, and it will baked in bamboo. The seventh day, Rebu - the day of rest. 'Rebu' meaning 'do not greet'. People stay at home after the six days of celebration, work is prohibited, and people are not allowed to talk to certain of their in-laws.

The explanation above are some activities during Merdang Merdem. The writer has told that Kerja Tahun has different application in this modern era. Nowadays, this party is celebrated in two days only, mantem/motong and matana. In the first day, mantem, the people prepare all the food that should be served. Especially slaughter the pigs and cows. The family or guests usually come start from in the evening of the first day through the second day. Gendang Guro Guro Aron also started in the first day, in the evening. It will continued in the second day, matana. In the second day, Karo people also make cimpa or Lemang.

2. Ndurung

As the writer has described above, that ndurung is the activity of searching for nurung or fish in rice field or river. In the past, most of Karo people loved ndurung. They tried to find fish in rice field or river. But nowadays, this activity is not as popular as before. It may be caused by the some factors such as: the rice filed is not as much as in the past, it is easy to find the fish seller in the market, the Karonese in this time have more kinds of occupation, not like in the past, that most of Karonese were farmers.

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