When Harvest Season Comes : Portrait of the Countryside Peasants

One fine day, I had a walk to a countryside. There, I found some peasants were harvesting rice crop with traditional method, a common activity that we found during the harvest season in the most countryside areas, the field owner hired some local women to harvest. When I saw their activity, I was back on my childhood. I waited for the harvest session over, so I and my friends could use the empty land as football field and played kites. I made a short stop to observe the way they cut off the straw rice and it happened so quick. In the same moment, I recalled my old time when I was being a kid, when my father asked me to send out the food to them. With cheerful feeling I ran to the field. I knew that the field would clear out from the grain. Oh! I wish I could back to my childhood time. The time that I was set to experience the innocent moment on this field. Playing football, running after kites, and looking for straw mushroom at dawn.

Suatu hari, saya berjalan ke pedesaan. Waktu yang tepat untuk melihat para petani memanen padi dengan metode tradisional. Ini kegiatan yang umum kita jumpai selama musim panen tiba di daerah pedesaan, pemilik ladang mengupah beberapa wanita lokal untuk memanen. Ketika saya melihat aktivitas mereka, saya kembali ke masa kecil saya, menunggu sesi panen selesai, sehingga saya dan teman-teman saya bisa menggunakan lahan kosong sebagai lapangan sepakbola dan areal bermain layang-layang. Saya berhenti sejenak untuk mengamati cara mereka memotong batang padi begitu cepat. Pada saat yang sama, saya teringat masa lalu ketika saya masih kecil, ketika ayah saya meminta saya untuk mengirimkan makanan kepada mereka. Dengan perasaan ceria aku berlari ke ladang. Saya tahu tempat ini akan bersih dari biji-bijian. Oh! Saya berharap bisa kembali lagi ke masa kecil saya. Saat itu saya merasakan momen polos bermain di lahan ini. Bermain sepakbola, berlari mengejar layang-layang, dan mencari jamur jerami saat fajar.

"Keumeukoh" as Achenesse call for harvesting the rice crop. Involving local women is the way to empower the local labors. The number of labor depend on how large the field does one have. To get this job done, the landlord needs seven or more labors.

"Neubay" is the collection of the mature rice crop that was tied with the rice straw. These collective rice crop will be then gathered to produce the grain.

"Sadeup", or sickle is the main tool to use in harvesting crop. It was designed typically for harvesting. The sickle itself has variously curved blade and must be handle carefully.

In present time, the traditional harvesting method is, in some part, replaced by the machinery method for efficiency and economical reason but there is another reason why the traditional method has its place in modern agricultural advancement, it can empower the local labor to earn the periodic income during the harvest.

This is the moment for the peasant kids to celebrate party. After harvesting season, the kids will be taken to shopping, or buying them new toys.