Inner Melody

THE fasting month of Ramadan was still a month away, but the festive mood in the town square of Bone Bulango Regency in Gorontalo, felt like the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday had come early. A large crowd, with each person dressed in their best clothes, descended on the town's center. The vice-governor, mayor, district chiefs and other bureaucrats cleared their schedules in order to attend this major event in Gorontalo Province. Most interesting of all was the parade of uniformed women in headscarves representing the 74 districts of Gorontalo. Children, grandchildren, and neighbors came out to support the competing districts.

This is the province-level Saadela Lo Ngadi Wunu-wunungoabbreviated SNWwhich was held last May. SNW is a Qur'an Recital Event (MTQ) with a local flair. A week before a controversy erupted over the recitation of some verses of the Qur'an in the style of a Javanese melody during the Isra Mi'raj Commemoration at the State Palace in Jakarta, the Gorontalo Province held this special event without much fanfare. The melody and recitation style were done in a unique Gorontalo style. While the MTQ only allowed recitation of the Qur'an to be done in the seven standard styles (bayati, shoba, hijaz, nahawan, rost, jiharkah, and sikah), the SNW had introduced four local styles: amudi, banjara, masiri, and arabi. This is according to Lukman D. Katili, an official of the LPTQ (Qur'an Recitation Development Institution) of Gorontalo, told Tempo two weeks ago.