Local traditions and culture in Aceh Special Region

After a while working in Aceh, I found out that the Acehnese has a great sense of culture. They love dance, poets and other cultural performance. One of my favorites is Acehnese dance performance. If you are interested to see Acehnese dance performance, you can check “Taman Budaya” and “Turkish Community Centre”. The dance also performed in ceremonial events.

Most of Acehnese like to "hang out" in a "Kedai", some kinda coffee shop where they drink coffee and talk for hours. The strange thing is that they seems like spending more times in Kedai instead of at their working places.

One of local customs in Indonesia is the people like to gather for any kind of purposes. Meeting, discussion, rest, etc. If Java has the community center name “Bale” and in Bali, people use to call it as “Bale Banjar”, in Aceh the community center known as “Meunasah”. Meunasah is multi-purposes for Acehnese, and it’s a center for community, especially those who live in rural area, to hold gathering, discussion, prayer, etc.

Without a presence of Starbuck, soon I look for the place to satisfy my coffee addiction. And I found one!! Ulee Kareeng is a place where people usually go for coffee in Banda Aceh. The coffee is delicious. “Warkop” stands for Warung Kopi is a literally translate for coffee shop.
The traditional coffee shop is unfortunately male domination. You will be disappointed if you imagine cozy corner where you can contemplate or reading a book. Coffee shop in Aceh is more like “gathering place” where people discuss about anything, from daily life to political matter. Better go with male companion if you wish to sip a coffee here.

One of my favorite coffee is "sanger". It's basically a coffee with layer of milk at the bottom of the glass. It's a Caffee Lattee of Aceh version I guess :) But the taste is nice!!

Ramadhan, a holy month for Moslem, is an important month for Acehnese. Moslem is fasting from dusk to down, and in Aceh, there are rarely restaurant open during the daytime. And during night time, people activity are mostly revolve around Mosque and other religious activities. The nice thing about Ramadhan is there will be a lot of home made food seller for “break the fasting”, along the main road of Banda Aceh city. Other nice thing is Invitation for break the fast together.

Aceh is famous known as “Macca Verandah”. History shows a strong influence of Islamic principal which a part of Acehnese culture. Be respectful and never hesitate to ask question if you are not clear about something. Although it seems reserved and very conservative, many Acehnese I met are really open minded. And generally Acehnese people are friendly, although sometimes Acehnese has a little bit “rough” in their attitude, but it’s not what they really are. They are very friendly.