T

hat morning it was approximately 8 a.m. After teaching the Koran, Usman and his friends in the Kesuren Islamic Boarding School in Ciloang, Banten, began to work on decorations. At the time, the boarding school wanted to celebrate the maulid (birthday) of the Prophet Muhammad.

They made a replica of the boarding school building from bamboo, known locally as a kobong. Komeng, another ustadz (teacher) in the boarding school, had started to build the kobong at midnight to make sure that it would be ready to be used at 10 a.m.

The procession kicked off with a representative of the boarding school management, Syamsuri, igniting firecrackers at the boarding school complex.

Then participants, mostly santri (students of the boarding school) started to march, heading to the Al-Mujahideen Mosque from one of the mosques in the Kesuren village. They took the kobong with them during the long march.

In the courtyard of the mosque, hundreds of Muslims had already prepared to take part in the celebration, chanting a marhabanan (welcoming) for the birth of the Prophet.

Meanwhile, the sound of firecrackers were also heard from all parts of the nearby villages.

The Kesuren Boarding School is located in Serang, the provincial capital city of Banten, not far from shopping Mall of Serang.

In its blog at pesantren-kesuren.blogspot.com, the boarding school says its vision is to maintain the old traditions in modern life.

One of the boarding school executives stressed that religious tradition should be developed to be compatible with modern life. '€œThe celebration of the maulid, which is part of a religious [Islamic] tradition, is still relevant in this modern life,'€ said ustadz Agus Rahmat.