The
House
of Ding.

Sangjit

• Posted February 20th, 2009
• by Chris
• 1 comment

Om Thomas accom­pa­nies Joe on the keyboard

Tonight my fam­ily joined Agnes’ fam­ily at their house for the tra­di­tional pre-matrimonial gift exchange, called Sangjit. Sangjit is a Chi­nese tra­di­tion that, from what I’m told, dif­fers quite a bit from fam­ily to fam­ily. For our San­jit, we each exchanged eight dec­o­rated bas­kets of gifts (clothes, shoes, per­fume, jew­elry). Although mostly sym­bolic now, sangjit is tra­di­tion­ally meant to pro­vide every­thing a cou­ple would need in their new life together.

To start the cer­e­mony, I entered her par­ents’ house fol­lowed by my fam­ily and eight unmar­ried boys (nes’ cousins) car­ry­ing the eight bas­kets. Inside, the eight bas­kets were handed to eight girls; usu­ally the bride’s friends or fam­ily. Ang pao is then given to the eight gift car­ri­ers in appre­ci­a­tion of their help. Typ­i­cally, the girls will imme­di­ately do the same, car­ry­ing in eight bas­kets of gifts for the groom. Our sangjit included a mini Catholic mass at the house—priest and all.

It was quite an affair. Agnes’ par­ents ordered lots of food (nasi tumpeng, a vari­ety of dejen pasar, sev­eral soups, and much more) and a giant tent for the front yard to accom­mo­date the 100+ guests. Agnes used the oppor­tu­nity to get a trial run of her wed­ding makeup and hairstyling.

Agnes’ makeup is removed—transforming her back into the per­son I know and love.

After­wards, we ate more and min­gled with her fam­ily that had arrived from all over Indone­sia for the wed­ding. Another exhaust­ing day but only a warm-up for what’s in store for us Sunday.