#sandya maulana

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Senandung Damba Smaradhana

Selamat Hari Musik Nasional 2017! Sila simak lagu saya "Senandung Damba Smaradhana."

Selamat Hari Musik Nasional (walaupun agak terlambat)! Dalam rangka merayakan Hari Musik Nasional 2017, saya mengunggah sebuah lagu berjudul “Senandung Damba Smaradhana.” Sila dengarkan lagu ini dengan meng-klik tombol play pada kotak Soundcloud di bawah ini: [soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/311500790"…

[bacotteheca]

In my country, even for saying ‘merry Christmas’ is a debatable issue. Yet there I was, in a the middle of United States, as minority both in religion and race, just had a blissful Christmas experience I’ve ever imagined.

During this winter break, my husband and I did not have something particular to do so we were wondering to just cuddle in our apartment and maybe do light grocery now and then while enjoying the Christmas and New Year’s vibe with all the pretty decorations and colorful lights people had come up with throughout our small town. That was my very first time seeing all the Christmas festivity because I did not really feel it back in my country in which Islam was a majority. Thanks to Hollywood movies especially Home Alone series, I had always been mesmerized by the Christmas tree, festive lights and snow as a kid and had been imagining when would I ever be experiencing all those things myself. So now, I can say that I was thankful that I finally had this experience.

Nearing the Christmas, I already felt the cheerfulness and excitement of the people on the air. What I most recognized was how the kindness was blossomed during this time of the year. For example, the movement from community called Help-Portrait that gave free service photography. One of my friend also told me that December was a month of giving. I found this interesting because I could relate this month to Ramadhan, an month in Islamic lunar calendar, that is considered holly for me as moslem and also considered as the month of giving. Yet, another blessing came to us when The Castillos invited us to take part in their Christmas celebration. They invited us to cook their local Chrismas specialty called Hallacas and to get together on Christmas’ eve. Yayness!

A few days before Christmas, we gathered with The Costellos from Venezuela and The Allegrias from Colombia to learn how to make Hallacas–a specialty that you usually found during Christmas. The Castillos spent around three to four days to prepare the big batch of Hallacas. On the first day, on which I could not take part, The Castillos and The Allegrias chopped all the ingredients and make the stuffing. Basically, the stuffing were supposed to be pork, beef, and or chicken. However, it was kind of them to think about us and not putting any pork on it so that we could taste them together. How can your heart does not melt this way??

So there we were, on the second day. We were circling all the stuffing and the dough as well as the banana leaves to be put together in order to form a nice fluffy Hallacas. First we lied the clean banana leaf, next we put some dough on it. On the top of the flatten dough, we put the meat stuffing as well as the garnish like raisins, peppers, onion, and olives. The last part were the trickiest that made the novice like me put my hands up. You needed to close the dough so that it formed a rectangular shape, put another layer of leaves then tied them together. Even Helena, the first daughter of The Castillos were better at tying the Hallacas the me. I should try harder..

Bellow were the final forms of the beauty. I thought we suceeded in putting together more than 80 Hallacas at that day. Then Carla, the mother in the Castillos boiled them for two hours. They said that back in the village, the Hallacas were boiled all together in a very big pot on the fire outside the house. Since we’re living in apartment, Carla needed several round to finally able to cook all of the Hallacas. What a strong women!

So I was telling you that the Allegrias from Colombia was taking a big part too. And from Carla I knew that Hallacas is only Venezuelans meanwhile Columbians are more used to what we call Tamale . The later day, Carla gave us the Hallacas and they are good. The stuffing had the sweet taste to it and the corn flour was fluffy. Again, the whole process remind me of how we used to make our ketupat and for the taste, it reminds me of Bacang or Zongzi.

Then finally we got to get together on the Christmas’ eve. We first had the dinner. We got to taste the Hallacas together with dishes The Allegrias’ bring like the shrimp salad and tasty milk pudding with oh-my-God-so-good level. We ourselves only brought a simple veggies salad since we did not know what might go well with the hallacas. And again, it warmed my heart when they were even provided us the sparkling juice because we do not drink alcohol. They also kept apologizing when they made the ham rolls–because of course ham rolls should consisted of Ham and not anything else. They did not need to apologize at all bet they did. Our night was ended beautifully by Gentra crying–and gifts exchanged. It was sweet.

P.s Carla made the three flags for each of the families. Isn’t it too cute??

For me, attending The Castillos’ party did not necessarily about religion alone. For me, it was just one from many events to share love with. They celebrate their belief and I took part to celebrate our friendship. Just like when they took part in my Eid Al Fitr celebration early this year.

The experience taught me about culture, about togetherness, about kindness and love. By this, I want to show how beautiful your life if you surrounded by people who respect your way of life that much. I thank God for this really.  By this, I really want to make sure people do the same wherever they are because it matters. No matter whether your religion is the majority or minority, you know you always can be kind and respectful towards people with different beliefs, different cultures and race in your surroundings. I was glad to be part of their celebration and for me personally, it was another chance to enrich my understanding towards seeing from new perspectives.

I get it if some of you do not have the same view with mine I totally respect it. Here, I simply want to share my own experience and of course it does not reflect how everybody either my religion or in my country would do. My story simply reflects how I perceived this whole experience and to emphasize that sharing love is not that hard.

  Thank you from the moon and back for the Castillos–Roberto, Carla, Helena, Charlota and the Allegrias–Alex, Catherine, Veronica, Kamila for teaching us kindness and love.

    Much love,

The Maulanas–Sandya, Resa, Gentra.

How I Experienced Christmas for The First Time In my country, even for saying 'merry Christmas' is a debatable issue. Yet there I was, in a the middle of United States, as minority both in religion and race, just had a blissful Christmas experience I've ever imagined.