The Gayo people live in the central highlands of Aceh. With no written script of their own, they have passed down their stories and songs orally from generation to generation. They grow Arabica coffee for a living and are also known for producing civet coffee. Historically, the Gayo have lived in poverty, and it is only in recent decades that they’ve had access to higher education.

Sorrow is a defining trait of the Gayo people. Even their traditional dances reflect a profound sense of despair. This pervasive hopelessness has led to high suicide rates across all age groups within the community.

The Gayo have a mournful poetic form known as Sebuku, which consists of expressive, lyrical verses that are chanted while weeping. For the Gayo, both weddings and funerals are considered acts of parting, and Sebuku is sung at both occasions.

At weddings, the bride leaves her family, often feeling as if she’s being “sold” by her parents or abandoned like an orphan. She pours all her grief and longing into the heartbreaking verses of Sebuku. Her mother, too—having raised her daughter with great care and sacrifice—will respond by chanting her own Sebuku through tears. Friends and relatives join in, each with their own emotional renditions. Weeping becomes the dominant theme of a Gayo wedding.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, You once promised, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” We ask You now to pour out the comfort that this world cannot offer on the sorrowful and despairing Gayo people. Father, the Gayo sense an unfillable emptiness in their lives, though they do not yet know that You are the One who can fill it. We pray that You would dwell among them—make Your dwelling place with the Gayo people so they may be Your people, and You their God. Lord, wipe away every tear from their eyes, and let them glimpse a world where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.