CIGUGUR, Indonesia (UCAN) -- When Catholics and other residents of a West Java village gathered on Jan. 1 to give thanks and pray for blessings in the coming year, they were not celebrating New Year.

The ethnic Sundanese people of the village in Cigugur, Kuningan district, 200 kilometers southeast of Jakarta, celebrated Seren Taun, their traditional harvest festival.

Seren Taun falls on the 22nd day of the month of Rayagung, according to the traditional Sundanese calendar, which coincided with Jan. 1 this year. Local Catholics organized an interreligious service that day after celebrating with an inculturated Mass the day before.

The interreligious service started with a procession of pairs of children, a boy and a girl each, in traditional attire. Eleven pairs of children coming from each of the four directions carried agricultural products to Paseban Tri Panca Tunggal, a hall and cultural landmark. Eleven adult couples, the women carrying rice on their head and the men carrying rice, fruit and tubers on their shoulders, followed.

Prince Madrais of the Gebang Sultanate, based in Cirebon, 35 kilometers north of Cigugur, built the hall in 1840, during Dutch colonial rule, as a center of traditional religion. In 1848 he founded Agama Djawa Sunda (ADS, Sunda-Java religion), based on local mysticism.

All participants at the Jan. 1 celebration entered the hall for prayers led by leaders of all six government-recognized religions as well as traditional religion. Prince Madrais' grandson, Prince Djatikusumah, an ADS follower, said prayers on behalf of five traditional belief systems across the country.

Crosier Father Yohanes Cantius Abukasman, of Christ the King Church in Cigugur, said prayers on behalf of Catholics. He told UCA News the organizing committee and about 70 percent of the people present were Catholics.

Two of them explained to UCA News they see the feast as part of their Sundanese heritage, not an ADS ritual. Sundanese form the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia after the Javanese and are concentrated in West Java.

Bartolomeus Juarsa, 36, described the event as "an interfaith celebration where we enjoy togetherness and unity."

For Agustinus Febi, 17, it was a chance to give thanks to God. "I am proud to celebrate the feast in this hall, which Catholics have used as a church," he said.

In 1964, Prince Djatikusumah's father, Prince Tedjabuana, disbanded ADS due to the policy of then-president Soeharto's "New Order" government, which recognized only five religions in the country: Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, Islam and Protestantism. Confucianism was added in recent years.

Prince Tedjabuana, his parents and siblings, and 7,000 followers became Catholics and used the hall as a church. In 1976 the government declared the hall a national cultural heritage.

Father Abukasman, who also converted to Catholicism together with his family at that time, told UCA News he joined in Seren Taun to show that the Church supports the people's thanksgiving tradition.

"We always celebrate Mass on the eve of Seren Taun," he said, adding that the Mass reflects the traditional feast through the use of Sundanese language, decorations, costumes and rituals.

On Dec. 31 evening, Mass in the Cigugur parish church started with a welcome dance accompanied by traditional Sundanese degung music. Then Church elders performed an incense ritual using a traditional charcoal stove beside the altar, while Massgoers placed agricultural products they brought from home in front of the altar.

Father Abukasman and two concelebrants wore blankon, traditional male headgear, and the acolytes wore traditional attire. About 3,000 Catholics attended the special liturgy, while another 1,500 went to a similar Mass at Cisantana mission station. The parish has 11 mission stations and 8,000 Catholics in all.

Father Antonius Rutten, a former Cigugur parish priest, told UCA News the Church started the thanksgiving Mass in 1967. The Dutch Crosier priest said most Catholics celebrate the thanksgiving harvest feast as a cultural tradition. But in place of traditional "mystical" elements, the Catholic Church highlights thanksgiving to God, he pointed out.

The feast culminated with joint pounding of rice by villagers. Father Rutten credited the spirit of cooperation and service in the village with motivating many young people to serve the Church. Cigugur, he noted, has produced seven priests and about 40 Religious and seminarians.

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(Accompanying photos available at here)