BANDUNG, unpas.ac.id – Ngabuburit is an identical tradition only found in Ramadhan, especially in Indonesia. This term means a waiting time to break the fasting.
Usually, ngabuburit is mostly spent by various activities; for example, visiting tourist attractions, reading the Koran, listening to religious lectures, looking for takjil, reading books, as well as spending a relaxed time with family or friends.
Derivation of ngabuburit
Public might probably not know that the term of ngabuburit is originally derived from Sundanese; in fact, ngabuburit is quite popular in Indonesia.
Head of Institution for Sundanese Culture Universitas Pasundan, Hawe Setiawan, said that ngabuburit comes from the root word burit which means afternoon or evening.
“The term ngabuburit refers to a verb, which is to do activities to fill time while welcoming the arrival of the afternoon,” he said on Tuesday, 5 April 2022.
According to Hawe, the term ngabuburit is a unique form of Sundanese; because in Sundanese, the adverb of time (in this case, burit) can be a verb after getting a prefix (nga-).
“Sundanese vocabularies are not much, but its variation is limitless. Thus, its uniqueness contains on the adverb of time. People can make another verb by essentially adding a prefix, such as ngabuburit,” he said.
Based on Sundanese Dictionary published by Institution of Sundanese Language and Literature (Lembaga Bahasa dan Sastra Sunda), the word ngabuburit is derived from ngalantung ngadagoan burit or getting relaxed while waiting for the evening.
Emergence of the term ngabuburit
Hawe also stated that the term has already emerged for a long time, exactly when Islamic culture occupied Sundanese mainland.
“It has long emerged, as I remembered. I think it was around the time when Islamic values got into the Sundanese culture,” he said.
However, as Hawe stated, ngabuburit activities are getting various and developed compared to the beginning of its emergence. In the past, children still filled ngabuburit activities with playing games, commonly West Java traditional games, such as bebeledugan or bamboo cannon.
“Today, ngabuburit activities are adjusted to the local culture, especially led to a more creative and valuable activities, not only for filling time, but also living the Ramadhan up,” he explained.
Ngabuburit Becoming National Term
Although the term is derived from Sundanese, it is now being used generally in some areas in Indonesia. Hawe also considered that the phenomenon is influenced by the media which becomes a place for spreading the term itself.
“I think it is because the media, therefor, ngabuburit is now getting popular. The term is also easily spoken by non-native Sundanese speaker,” he said.
Thus, the term ngabuburit is increasingly accepted by the people in Indonesia; although in some areas there are those who have their own terms. (Reta)*
