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The "shut-in" month. 11. Meuʾapét (Dul-qaʿdah). In various other native languages as well as Achehnese, this month is known by names which signify "pinched" or "shut in". The name is now generally believed[1] to have originated in the fact that this month comes in between the two in which the official feasts of Islam are celebrated[2].
On account of this "shutting in", the 11th month is considered unsuitable for the undertaking of any work of importance, such as a marriage or circumcision etc.
The "Great Feast."12. Haji (Ḍul-ḥidjah). On the 10th day of this month the great neat sacrificial feast in connection with the Hajj is celebrated in the valley of Muna (the ancient Mina), which lies to the east of Mekka. The books of the law recommend, though they do not imperatively prescribe, the holding of public prayers in other places some time after sunrise on this day. These prayers are followed by the sermon proper to the festival, and it is also considered highly meritorious to sacrifice animals. The two preceding days are also regarded as specially eligible for voluntary fasts. Those who are performing the hajj, however, do not usually fast, as this cannot be required of them in view of the fatigues of their journey.
It is a very popular view in Java, that the feast-day of this month derives its significance from this identical fast[3]. And yet there are but few in Java, who submit to what is there called the antarwiyah and ngarpah, the fast on the days of tarwiyah and ʿarafah, i. e. the 8th and 9th of this month.
Three days fair.This two-days fast is only known in Acheh among devotees, and little practised even by them,—the less so, as the feast is preceded by a three-days fair of the same kind as we met with in the months Kanduri Bu and Puasa. The 7th is uròë peutrōn, the 8th uròë pupòʾ, the 9th uròë seumeusië, and the three taken together uròë maʾmeugang. In
- ↑ Dr. Brandes has elucidated the original meaning of this name, which has no connection with the Mohammedan calendar, in a very interesting article in the Tijdschrift van het Bat. Genootschap, vol. XLI.
- ↑ In Java the month has many more names than appear in the dictionary. Besides Apit (Sund. Hapit) = "pinched" and Sěla = "interval" we find also Longkang = "interval" [curiously enough this word means a narrow drain or ditch in the Malay of Singapore, (Translator)], Lěgěna = naked (without any feast), Silih Sawal (just as Rabiʾ al-ākhir is called Silih Mulud) and Rowah Haji (as it were the Rowah month of the month Haji, on the analogy of the Rowah proper which precedes the other feasting month, Sawal).
- ↑ Hence this day is often called Baʾda Běsar meaning (the day) after the fast of the month Běsar.
