Serabi Kocor Ceremony

Serabi Kocor is a ceremony performed by the farmers in order to ask for rain. This ceremony is performed in the long dry season on Legi Friday (Legi is the fourth day of Javanese 5-day cycle), and by the same time commemorating the birth of myth figure of Bandung village, Eyang Andansari. She was the woman believed to build the “sendang” (well) to support the people’s lives. The well is located in Kanoman hamlet. In Serabi Kocor ceremony the farmer community of Bandung village delineate Eyang Andansari whose daily work was taking water from the South Sea by using a basket as the bucket. Using a basket which normally is full of holes will surely not be able to bring the water away as it drips down through the holes and soak the ground. Set of offerings: Serabi Kocor is a kind of food made of rice flour, white in color, and in the shape of breast (woman’s bosom). Mother’s milk will make a child grow well and constitutes a main diet of a baby. Representing breast by Serabi Kocor means that the mother’s milk will flow swiftly so that the child will be healthy. The Serabi Kocor is poured with brown sugar syrup to symbolize the farm land which is poured with rain water and becomes fertile, like a child who drinks his mother’s milk and becomes healthy. The Serabi Kocor ceremony is performed on Legi Friday, when each family bringing Serabi Kocor gathers at the Bandung well, lead by Rois or the village leader or his representative, who will recite a prayer and request to God through Eyang Andansari, mainly asking for the rain. After the prayer, all the people will eat together at the well after exchanging the food they bring to one another, and if there are still some food remains they will bring it back home as berkat (blessing), and it ends the Serabi Kocor ceremony in Bandung village.