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Pasar Kembang: Sajen and Flower Tradition

In Solo City, you will find a tempting Flower Market to visit. Pasar Kembang can be called Kembang or flowers because this place sells flowers for sajen or offerings, sadranan, corpses or accessories.

Pasar Kembang is located in Honggowongso Street, Kemlayan, Serengan, Surakarta City. This market is very unique because it has a uniqueness which is different from another traditional markets in Solo, especially in Java. In that way, the existence of this flower market is rare.

Market has its own meaning for the Javanese people, which means “pasaran” or follows the five days of the Javanese calendar. Traditional markets themselves theoretically develop following the Javanese “pasaran”, which means they are only open on certain days, such as Pon, Wage, Kliwon, Legi, and Pahing. The commodities offered are influenced by the intensity of the ritual ceremonies carried out by the local community.

 

In practice, the Javanese people are not far from ritual ceremonies or slametan which are often performed at certain events.  Metu (birth), Manten (Marriage), and Mati (Death) phases are not spared from the slametan ceremony which requires sajen or offerings that include kembang (flowers) as a complement to the sajen.

 

Kembang (flowers) have become part of ceremonial and meditation equipment that function as traditional “perfume”. The function of this perfume itself is as a fragrance that has been discovered by Javanese ancestors, which makes the room very fragrant without spraying fragrances imported from the West.

 

The people in Solo City, who cannot be separated from the slametan, always buy flowers as a part of sajen (offerings) at the Pasar Kembang. A market that has always been known for its complex sellers and buyers, but Pasar Kembang itself is unique with the smell of the flowers along the streets and the colorful flowers that fill the market area.

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