Tedak Siten: First Steps on Earth

Tedak siten (from Javanese *tedak* — step down, *siten* — earth) is the Javanese ceremony marking a child's first contact with the earth — typically performed at 7 or 8 months of age (Javanese calculation, which uses a 5-day week cycle). Before this ceremony, the infant is carried and never allowed to touch the ground; tedak siten marks the transition to the child's independence of movement and their formal connection to the earth (and by extension, to agriculture, to community, to the Javanese world). The specific food of tedak siten is jenang (sweet rice porridge) in seven colours — each colour a different symbolic meaning, prepared separately and arranged in order.

Tedak Siten — Food of the Infant's First Contact with Soil

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