Have You Sat Properly?
Never sit anywhere, otherwise, you will be classified as an uncivilized person.
Knowing numerous, if not all, of the world’s culture and tradition, are interesting. This knowledge can give us more perspectives and insights to understand the world we live in. And there will be a lot of advantages that we can have once we have better comprehension regarding people and their culture.
For instance, a person from the United States of America will be able to adapt quickly when he happens to interact with people from North Sumatra in a traditional ceremony when he has adequate information related to the event. Moreover, it also can serve as a solution whenever cultural problems occur in our diverse world.
As we live in a varied world, understanding other people and culture are the greatest wisdom that any of us should have. To a large extent, the values must be implemented in real life. Thus, within this edition, I would like to share with you one of the Toba Batak culture values. It’s all about sitting position in traditional ceremonies.
Sitting Position
The sitting position in the Toba Batak traditional ceremonies depending on the type of the traditional ceremonies, place, function and position of the ceremonies. All Batak people must know it as suggested by J. Nababan, one of the prominent spokespersons of the Toba Batak traditional ceremonies.
“Based on the traditional values we derived from our ancestors, the sitting position of the Toba Batak people in the traditional ceremonies relies on the kind of ceremonies, place, function and position of the party,” said J. Nababan.
According to Silalahi, J., et al (2020), in principle, the sitting position was classified as follows:
If the ceremony is conducted in the front yard, suhut (the doer of the party or the man’s side/the husband’s side) sits with their back to their house; others adjust their position.
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If the ceremony is conducted inside the house, suhut sits in jabu bona (the right side of the house), hula-hula (the wife’s side) sits in front of the suhut/face to face sitting; others adjust their position.
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That’s the beauty of the Toba Batak culture and tradition. It’s interesting, isn’t it? So, have you sat properly?