Weddings, C-sections are a go for ‘triple 11’

Hundreds of couples across the country will tie the knot on Friday, while expectant parents are hoping and in some cases ensuring that their babies will be born on Nov. 11, 2011.

One of the couples that will have a special wedding celebration on Friday night is Fatya and Nandar from Jakarta.

“This month — Dzulhijjah — is a good month, and if we add the triple 11, it equals 33 just like the total number of chants during zikir [prayer recital]. So I think it’s a good time to get married,” she said. Dzulhijjah is the 12th month of the Islamic calendar.

Fatya said that she had found it difficult to arrange some key matters for her wedding as she had just started the preparations in October.

“No tents were available for the ijab qabul [Islamic wedding ritual], I couldn’t order more plates from the caterer, and I couldn’t get purple for the decorations because I was too late.

“Thank God I still could find the available venue at Nyi Ageng Serang hall [in South Jakarta],” Fatya said, adding that another couple had booked another room at the same building a year ago.

She said that as she would be getting married on a weekday, she had paid only Rp 5 million (US$557) for the venue, lower than the weekend tariff of Rp 6 million.

Fatya said that she was also lucky that she could hold the ceremony at 11 a.m. as there were several other couples who had requested the same time on the same day.

“Four officials from the Pulogadung Religious Affairs Office [KUA] will marry 18 couples in the area on Friday,” she added.

Other KUAs across Jakarta are also similarly booked-up on the day. KUA Grogol in West Jakarta will marry 22 couples on Friday. “Some asked to do hold the ceremony at 11 a.m., but we could only do one due to the limited amount of time and number of officials,” Encep Hidayat from the office said.

KUA Palmerah, West Jakarta, will marry 39 couples from six subdistricts on Friday. “On normal days, we sometimes only receive requests from around two couples. Sometimes we even receive none. But [Friday] is an exception, and furthermore they knew it would be good to get married after the Idul Adha day of sacrifice,” Heri Dwi Sutanto from the office said.

Meanwhile, in Medan, North Sumatra, the Religious Affairs Ministry was overwhelmed with the number of couples who wanted to tie the knot on the same day.

The head of the Muslim Affairs Division at the ministry, Impun Siregar, said that 415 couples wanted to get married on the 11th, but that there were only 116 officials available.

He said that to solve the problem, the office would hold the wedding ceremonies from early in the morning until night. “The times have all been arranged by the officials. We hope the families can be on time so that they won’t disrupt the schedules,” he said, adding that each ceremony would take around 45 minutes.

In Banyumas Regency, Central Java, around 600 couples will get married in 27 KUAs across the regency.

The large number of people getting married in Banyumas has also meant increased orders for tent rentals.

Nugroho, the owner of a tent rental company, said he had only been able to accept three orders out of the total 20 he had received.

Besides getting married, some women are planning to give birth on the special date.

Agus Maryono contributed to the story from Banyumas, Central Java.