The icy dessert, es cendol, is known for its mixture of sweet and umami taste as well as being one of the things that both Indonesians and Malaysians are equally passionate about. Consisting of worm-shaped green jellies made of rice flour, coconut milk, and palm sugar syrup, it’s guaranteed to sweeten any occasion, especially this Indonesian wedding.
A wedding video of a newlywed couple from East Lampung, Cicih Jayanti and Muhammad Rohman, has recently gone viral on social media. In it, Rohman continued what seems to be a trend of recent low-key weddings in Indonesia by giving Cicih a glass of es cendol and IDR100,000 (US$7) in cash as dowries on January 30, their wedding day.
In Islamic weddings, the groom or groom’s father pays money or possessions to the bride at the time of their marriage as mahr (dowry). The dowry is agreed upon by the bride and is usually specified in the marriage contract, usually taking the form of money and/or jewelry.
The happy bride, Cicih, told Detik that she was surprised by her newfound internet fame. She said there have been many people who mentioned her on Facebook, and that she has received a lot of positive and negative comments online.
According to 20-year-old Cicih, her husband Rohman, 23, has been selling es cendol since both of them studied at Universitas Nahdlatul Ulama (UNU) in Lampung. Aside from selling the sweet dessert, Rohman also runs a mobile library for children in underdeveloped areas — one of the reasons she’s attracted to him.
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Cicih said she was the one who asked Rohman es cendol as a dowry.
“I asked the es cendol lele as a dowry myself because this [dessert] reminded me of when I met him. I admired him, lah. He was still a student but he wasn’t ashamed of selling cendol,” Cicih said today, as quoted by Detik.
Cicih and Rohman’s nuptial adds to the list of modest Indonesian weddings that went viral on social media recently.
In December of last year, one couple from Indonesia’s Kebumen Regency, Central Java achieved viral fame for their low-key dowry — a pair of flip-flops worth IDR9,000.
Also in December, popular beauty vlogger Suhay Salim also broke the mold with her low-key wedding, which only involved her and her husband going to the religious office (the Indonesian equivalent of a City Hall marriage) while dressing casually.
We wish Cicih and Rohman a sweet journey together in their new chapter as husband and wife.
