One of my friend was interested with a pot of jasmine the other day but due to her husband's pantang larang, she had to just admire the beauty and smell the flower.
..........
Some people especially Malay, believes that fragrant flowers like bunga melur/jasmine, kemboja, sundal malam and kesidang should not be planted near the house coz when the night came, there will be visitors from the other world due to the smell or fragrant from those flowers.
I don't know how true it is and don't have the intention to cakap besar but I do loves all those sweet flowers. There are many ghost stories that has been associated strong smell like flowers...when we were in secondary school, every Friday morning we will wake up much early to go for jogging from Seberang Perak to Air Pancut (infront of Balai Seni)and we normally took a short cut, that means we have to passed by a graveyard..and there many kemboja flowers on the ground with various colour and the smell was nice but passing by in between batu nesan was like a very long journey...it was indeed a journey to remember...but never a horror one
There is another species of flower that for me, too hard to take care of is pokok kera nasi, the smell is much stronger but the flowers are half the size of jasmine. We need to build trellis for them to crawl and they need ample sunlight and enough water..and they make a good centre piece for dining table..just let few float on a transparent bowl and you don't need Ambi Pur in your house :-)
These are the flowers that normally been used for mandi bunga and sirih junjung. For mandi bunga, one need to find seven types of flowers or seven colours and limau purut..normally it will be held at bomoh's or dukun's house and there will be berasap for whatever reason...many years ago, I accompanied my friend for this mandi bunga at one old lady's house, the room was small and dark with no window, we sat on timber floor which were covered with old and faded tikar mengkuang...she recited mantera and holding a small cup with kemeyan and the session of berasap started ..it was scary for me, dark and smoky room with no ventilation...if she is not my best friend I think I won't be there at all....
After she made few circles in front of my friend's face with that kemeyan, she was led to the bathroom for mandi bunga..
It was an important event in her life before she got married..but mandi bunga did not help much, she ended up with a whirlwind marriage....and I was scolded when I informed my mom that I accompanied my friend for mandi bunga :-P
(Anyway according to Hukum hakam mandi bunga untuk mendapatkan jodoh is Haram!!)
Whatever it is, I don't like Mat Bunga, the one that write letters (dolu-dolu) with ayat cintan cintun meleret-leret and end the letter with 'pecah kaca, pecah gelas..' ... Pecah gelas, I buang lerr... Peace
