it wasn't worth that much....

tiwas penasaran, kaya apa yang namanya grebeg mulud. tahun lalu katanya ada 16 gunungan. aku pernah baca harusnya ada 30 gunungan. lalu segala pusaka kraton di keluarkan.
aku udah mbayangin sesuatu yang megah dan sakral, yang bakalan bikin merinding dan bergetar.
tapi dapetnya ini...

I was so curious, how a Grebeg Mulud is. Last year, they said there were 16 gunungans. I read somewhere, there should be 30. Then all the Kraton's Pusaka (weapons) would be brought out. I was ready for a chilling gracious moment.
And this was what I got...

drumband pembuka jalan-nya kalah banter sama drumband-nya Ar Ir
the opening drum band, ah... Ar-Ir's Drumband Group sounds even louder

lalu keluarlah prajurit ijo
then came out the 'green' soldiers

diikuti prajurit biru
followed by blue soldiers

dan prajurit merah
and red ones

dan gamelan kyai... apa ya? kanjeng?
and a set of Gamelan Kyai Kanjeng

ini yang dinanti-nanti Ar Ir: gunungan. gunungan pertama adalah gunungan jaler, yang isinya sayur dan buah2an
these were what Ar-Ir have been waiting for: gunungan. the first to come out was the male gunungan, made of fruits and vegetables

di belakangnya ada gunungan estri, dari rengginang dan jajan pasar. total gunungan ada tiga pasang, atau enam buah. dikit amat! tapi bentuknya sama semua, jadi ga usah dipasang gambarnya yang lain.
behind it, the female gunungan made of rengginang and some other traditional snacks. there were three pairs of gunungan. compared with last year, it is a small amount. they all looked the same so I only put pictures of a pair of the gunungans.

setelah itu muncul rombongan prajurit pemanah
after that, the archeries

udah. barisan ditutup dengan para abdi dalem yang jumlahnya banyak banget....
that's all. the parade was ended with all the abdi dalems (palace servers), so many of them.

yah.... lepas dari kenapa grebeg mulud ga semegah yang kubayangkan, ini tetaplah usaha pihak kraton untuk melestarikan budaya. dan walaupun rasa penasaranku cuma terbayar sebegitu, lumayanlah. buat pengalaman sekali seumur hidup...
well... ignoring why the Parade wasn't that big, this was still the effort of Kraton Solo to maintain a traditional moment. And even though my curiousity wasn't paid enough, that did okay. as once in a life time experience...

yang bikin tambah ngga cucuk adalah, semua gambar ini aku ambil cuma pake cameraphone-ku. harusnya aku bawa kameranya Dan...
what made it worse, was, I took all those pictures only with my cameraphone. I should have brought Dan's Camera, but as I told you, we didn't plan for this...

Note: what I saw was certainly not the whole ceremony. those gunungans and gamelan set brought to the Mosque at North Square for the next procession. You might be interested to learn more about Grebeg Mulud. The link is to Yogyakarta Grebeg. I Couldn't find one for Surakarta, yet.