Abstract
This paper aims to explain the relationship between the last Wednesday ritual in the month of Shafar (rebo wekasan) which is practiced every year by several Javanese Muslims and false hadiths about the month of Shafar. Several Javanese Muslims believe that the last Wednesday in the month of Shafar Allah has reduced various diseases, calamities, and bad luck and if the presence of the month of Shafar is not filled with good practices, then humans will be affected by the calamity revealed by God. This belief is considered by the scholars for not having a strong foundation in both the Koran and the Hadiths of the Prophet Muhammad. Several Muslim communities do not care whether the practices they do have a strong legal basis based on Islamic teachings or do not have a strong foundation. For them to fill the last Wednesday in the month of Shafar with good practices, and with various rituals, is an effort to protect themselves, family members and the community from various kinds of calamities and carry on ancestral traditions. One of the rituals they performed was rebo wekasan, the last Wednesday ritual in the month of Shafar which had been practiced for generations. These rituals–they believe–can prevent them from disasters and calamities that come from God at the last Wednesday in the month of Shafar. Each region in Java has different rituals to celebrate the arrival of the last Wednesday of the Shafar month in accordance with their respective beliefs and cultures.
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