JC. Princen The Ngaseuk Pare Ceremony is a traditional rice planting ceremony conducted in the Baduy community in Banten. This ceremony is held in April or Kapitu (Seventh) month according to the calendar of the Kanekes or Baduy people.
This ceremony is carried out by making a hole using wood which at the edges has been tapered in the huma to be planted with rice. The rice seeds were then planted or put into holes that had been made earlier by the Kanekes women.
The Ngaseuk ceremony was performed as an offering to the Goddess of Rice, namely Pohaci Sang Hiyang Asri.
Girang Serat, or traditional leader or person who is believed to be an elder in the Baduy community, leads the ritual and reads incantations aimed at “awakening” the rice that has been planted.
Before holding the ngaseuk pare ceremony, the Nyacar ritual is held first, which is a ceremony to clear fields or forests that will be used as rice fields from grasses and twigs. There is also the Nukuh ceremony, a ceremony carried out by cutting down large trees in the area of land to be used.
The purpose of these two ceremonies is to pay homage and offer offerings to dangiang or spirits who inhabit the forest or land. In accordance with the tradition of the Kanekes community which has been going on for generations and always preserving nature, paddy farming should not use chemicals, except using materials available in nature.
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