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Seeking good day for President'€™s son'€™s wedding

News about the planned wedding of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to Selvi Ananda has been in the air for quite some time

Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post)
Surakarta
Sat, April 18, 2015

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Seeking good day for President'€™s son'€™s wedding

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ews about the planned wedding of President Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo'€™s eldest son Gibran Rakabuming Raka to Selvi Ananda has been in the air for quite some time. However, no exact date has been announced by the First Family so far.

Even during a recent press conference in the family'€™s hometown of Surakarta, Central Java, First Lady Iriana only gave official information regarding the planned wedding, which she said would be held in early June.

'€œFor the exact date, please wait for the invitation,'€ Iriana told the press.

Gibran, now 27, runs a catering business in Surakarta and has been known to be media-shy. He has two siblings, sister Kahiyang Ayu, 23, and brother Kaesang Pangarep, 19.

For the majority of Javanese, the date for such an important event is indeed a complicated calculation. The result of such calculations is often referred to as a '€œgood day'€.

'€œAll days are good days. But, a good day is not [the same] for everyone. It has to be calculated according to one'€™s weton,'€ Javanese calendar expert Totok Yasmiran of the Surakarta Radya Pustaka Museum said.

Weton is a Javanese term referring to a calculation based on the seven days of the week and the five pasaran days according to the Javanese calendar (Pon, Wage, Kliwon, Legi and Pahing).

Each of the days has its own neptu (score), based on which one'€™s weton is calculated. The neptu of Wednesday, for example, is seven.

Based on the calculation of Gibran'€™s and Selvi'€™s weton, according to Totok, there are two good days in June for the couple'€™s wedding.

Gibran, Totok said, was born on Oct. 1, 1987 and thus his weton is Legi Thursday. Selvi was born on Jan. 9, 1989 and thus has a weton of Pahing Monday. Both have a neptu of 13.

Both neptu, Totok continued, are combined, equaling 26 for Gibran and Selvi. This is divided by five (the number of pasaran days), leaving one.

'€œAccording to the Javanese calendar, one falls on '€˜Sri'€™, the symbol of prosperity,'€ Totok said.

Based on this, Totok said, the two good days for the couple'€™s wedding were the Legi Saturday on June 6 and the Wage Sunday on June 14.

If the President'€™s family picks June 6, according to Totok, then the wedding has to be conducted from 8:25 until 10:48 a.m. local time. However, if June 16 is selected, the wedding should be held from 1 until to 3:36 p.m.

Separately, Javanese culture observer Muchus Budi Rahayu said that the wedding of a member of the Javanese community was the peak of his or her life. Apart from weton calculations, according to Muchus, a good day could also be found using the salaki rabi (matchmaking) calculation based on the telu buntu method.

According to Muchus, June (which coincides with the month of Ruwah according to the Javanese calendar), was the right choice because it would have an Anggara Kasih day (Kliwon Tuesday) within it.

There are some good months for weddings, said Muchus, including those that had an Anggara Kasih. Not every month has one.

'€œAnggara Kasih is believed to be the good day for a wedding,'€ Muchus said.

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