There is a good reason why the number seven keeps reappearing in the centuries-old mitoni ritual of the Javanese baby shower.

GKR Hayu, the fourth daughter of Sri Sultan Hamengku Buwono X, changed her wraparound cloth seven times in a mitoni ceremony (Javanese baby shower) at Kraton Kilen of the Yogyakarta Palace on June 18.

From the first to the sixth batik cloth, her eldest sister, crown princess GKR Mangkubumi, asked the audience, “Is it already appropriate?”

“Not yet!” the crowd answered.

Only after she had put on the seventh cloth with a striped pattern — symbolizing the vertical relationship between humans and the Creator as well as the horizontal ties among fellow humans — did the audience shout, “It’s appropriate!”

The procession, called pantes-pantes (propriety), is part of the two-hour mitoni ceremony Javanese moms-to-be go through as they reach the seventh month of their first pregnancy. The ceremony comprises 19 stages ending in a feast. Each stage carries a symbolic message and prayer to God for the safe passage of the mother and her firstborn.

This tradition is said to originate in the period of King Jayabaya, who ruled the Kediri Kingdom in the 12th century, when Hindu culture was dominant. A royal couple, Sadiya and his wife Niken Satingkeb, after nine stillbirths, asked for guidance from the king on how to be blessed with a child. King Jayabaya, so the legend goes, ordered the couple to perform a ritual that later became known as mitoni or tingkeban, named after Niken Satingkeb.

Nine centuries later, many Javanese families, including the royal family of the Yogyakarta Palace, still carry out the mitoni ritual to express gratefulness to God and pray for the health of the mother and child.

The mitoni ritual in Kraton Kilen was attended by close relatives of GKR Hayu and dozens of invitees.

“We invited our honorable guests to offer prayers, so that GKR Hayu will be blessed with good health and a smooth delivery process,” said the princess’s husband, KPH Notonegoro.

A prayer by Islamic clerics of the Yogyakarta Palace opened the mitoni ritual. The Sultan sat at the center of the hall to watch the entire process, while his wife GKR Hemas was involved in some sequences of the ritual.

Playing dress up: GKR Hayu changes her batik cloth seven times in the mitoni ritual. (Photo by Instagram/@gkrhayu)

The ritual continued with the siraman (shower), where the princess’s mother, GKR Hemas, and mother-in-law, R. Ay Nusye Retnowati, took turns to pour water derived from seven springs on GKR Hayu’s head, body and feet.

The water was scooped with a holed siwur (coconut-shell ladle), so they had to immediately pour it on GKR Hayu. Wigung Wratsangka, the master of ceremony, said the water in the siwur should not be drained — signifying that the mother’s amniotic fluid should not be exhausted, as that could endanger the fetus.

In the next stage, the brojolan (coming out of a cavity), two young coconuts were passed through a hollow created after loosening GKR Hayu’s cloth, symbolizing the family’s hope for a smooth delivery.

The sevenfold changing of the wraparound, or pantes-pantes, symbolizes that the baby should not be born before seven months, due to the greater risk of a miscarriage.

“This shows that the Javanese in the past were aware of infant wellbeing,” added Wigung.

Wigung argues that the numbers in the mitoni ritual carries special meaning. The siraman requires water from seven springs, three kinds of flowers and one siwur. The numbers seven, three and one can be used to predict the due date of a pregnancy.

The date of delivery can be estimated by adding one year, subtracting three months and adding seven days to the origin of the gestational age. In modern medicine, this formula is known as Naegele’s rule — named after German obstetrician Franz Karl Naegele, who devised the rule.

The mitoni ceremony also features sekul megono (rice) as an offering to signify thankfulness as the infant in the womb is already in its whole form, Wigung explained.

National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) head Hasto Wardoyo says the ritual should be preserved as a reminder for the whole family to pay attention to the expecting mother’s health.

“The mitoni serves as an opportunity to monitor the vital signs of the mother and the infant, like its heart rate, position and weight,” said Hasto, who is also an obstetrician.

Given its role as a reminder on pregnancy health, mitoni can play a role in helping the country reduce mother and child mortality. Every day, 38 pregnant mothers and 185 newborns die in Indonesia — according to recent data from the Health Ministry.

The ceremony shows how a Javanese ritual can survive the test of time through modern reinterpretations. As philosopher Franz Magnis-Suseno wrote in his book Etika Jawa (Javanese Ethics), Javanese culture has withstood waves of external cultures by embracing and incorporating some of the external cultures.

Smooth delivery: Gusti Kanjeng Ratu (GKR) Mangkubumi of Yogyakarta Palace passes a young coconut through a hollow in GKR Hayu’s cloth. The brojolan ritual signifies hope for a smooth birth.

— Photos by JP/Bambang Muryanto