The character education meaning on rites before wedding party in Muna ethnic of Southeast Sulawesi

The local culture is an important issue to be investigated since it gives much interesting process and great values. Before the wedding party, there are several rites that must be done by Muna ethnic. They are feenaghoo tingguno karete, kafeena, and karompua. Feenaghoo tingguno karete is a delegation of man’s parents visits the woman’s house to ask about the status of the woman. Kafeena is man’s parents delegate their relatives to bring something to woman’s house. Last, karompua is a meeting of both families to discuss the time and procedures of the marriage settlement. Data of this study collected through observation and interview and analyzed based on a descriptive qualitative approach. The result of this study shows that three rites have several character education meanings as follow: (1) careful; both man and woman evaluate each other before deciding to get marriage; (2) respectiveness; both families respect each other; (3) togetherness; both families help each other in holding a wedding party as one family and eating together; (4) social norm; man’s family always gives something before visiting the woman’s house and the woman’s family also welcome the man’s family attendance with various dish services, and (5) philosophy meaning; in those rites conveyed several Muna’s philosophical principles