PERNANKEN MUSEUM

Last weekend I went to the Pernanken Museum because my brother had visited it when he was here, and he highly recommended it. I am so glad he did!!!

A little history...in the Malay the term Pernankan means "child of" or "born of" and is used to refer to people of mixed ethnic origins.

This museum took you through many generations and many of the traditions of their society. It was quite interesting and I spent a few hours time there. I'll share a little with you.

Here's the amazing front doorway to the museum. I know, what an odd thing to put on the blog...well, I find doors amazing and this building was just gorgeous!!!

There was an entire area showcasing the bead work done in this society. Bead work was something women took lessons on so they would have a skill set to show a suitor they were domestic. Here is a picture of some bead work done in the shape of butterfly (thought you'd like the butterfly Mom).

The area of the museum that I enjoyed the most was about their weddings. Weddings are a twelve day ceremony. Each day has something of symbolic ceremony to it. The actual time when the man and woman became husband and wife was very early in the twelve days instead of during the actual ceremony as we think of it in the U.S. It was so interesting to read all about it. Below is a picture of a traditional headdress that would be worn during a wedding. In fact, this is still done today in many weddings, although many have become somewhat "western" also and yet they do most of the same rites, just in a different fashion now.

This is a "wedding basket" and is brought to the wedding with each level usually having a gift of food of some sort. The food would be symbolic...something for wealth, health, fertility, etc.

Very interesting to me was the part about the wedding procession. When I think of a procession I think of the wedding ceremony being over and the bride and groom exit the church. In this society the procession is similar, only it's a much longer procession...usually from the ceremony site to the reception site (to use terms we know in the U.S.) and the bride and groom walk, with someone holding umbrellas over them to protect them from the sun/rain, and the wedding party, families and friends all walk along also. Often times the police are brought in to keep the street clear for the procession. Here's a picture of a procession in part.

This is only a small, very small, portion of the museum, but I wanted to share some of it with you. Enjoy!