Sekaten and Garebeg at the Yogyakarta Kraton, as the palace describes them

The short answer

Sekaten and Garebeg are two of the palace's Hajad Dalem, the royal ceremonies the Keraton Yogyakarta still holds, and in the month of Mulud they run one into the other. Sekaten commemorates the birth of the Prophet Muhammad: the palace's two heirloom gamelan sets are taken to the Masjid Gedhe, the Great Mosque on the west side of the North Alun-Alun, and played there for days, then brought back. Garebeg is the Sultan's alms to his people, and Garebeg Mulud falls on the day after Sekaten ends.[2][1]

Everything below is the palace's own description, from its website kratonjogja.id and its tourism site. These are religious and court ceremonies first. XTOUR describes them; it does not suggest how to attend them.

Sekaten: the gamelan at the mosque

According to the palace's Sekaten article, the ceremony is held from the 5th to the 12th of Mulud (Rabi'ul Awal) and has been held since the time of Demak, the first Islamic kingdom on Java, as a way of spreading Islam: the gamelan drew people to the mosque to hear the teaching of the Wali Sanga. The palace offers two derivations for the name, from sekati, the gamelan sets, or from syahadatain, the Islamic declaration of faith.[1]

The two gamelan. Yogyakarta's set, the article says, was inherited from Mataram as two instruments, Kiai Gunturmadu and Kiai Guntursari, which were divided at the Treaty of Giyanti in 1755: Gunturmadu went to the Yogyakarta Sultanate and Guntursari to the Surakarta Sunanate. To make the pair whole again, Yogyakarta had a copy of Guntursari made and named it Kiai Nagawilaga.[1] At the mosque they have their own buildings: the palace's article on the Masjid Gedhe says the two pagongan pavilions were built to house them two years after the mosque's founding in 1773.[7]

The sequence, as the palace's article sets it out.

1. The gamelan are brought from their store inside the palace to the Bangsal Pancaniti and played in the evening; the Sultan's envoys scatter udhik-udhik, seeds and coins, as royal alms.[1] 2. At midnight, in the procession called Miyos Gangsa, they are carried to the Masjid Gedhe, Gunturmadu to the southern pagongan and Nagawilaga to the northern.[1] 3. From the 6th to the 11th of Mulud they are played three times a day, but not from Thursday evening until after Friday prayers.[1] 4. On the 9th of Mulud, Numplak Wajik, a rhythm beaten on a rice mortar, marks the start of work on the female gunungan for Garebeg.[1] 5. On the night of the 11th, the Sultan goes to the mosque, scatters udhik-udhik at both pagongan and inside the mosque, and listens to the reading of the Prophet's life; at the account of the birth he receives Sumping Melati, jasmine ear ornaments, which the palace reads as a sign that the ruler listens to his people.[1] 6. The gamelan then return to the palace in Kondur Gangsa, and Sekaten is over.[1]

Garebeg: the Sultan's alms

The palace's Garebeg article gives two meanings of the word: accompanied by many people, referring to the gunungan escorted by soldiers and courtiers to the mosque, or from gumrebeg, the roar of a crowd. It traces the ceremony to an old Javanese royal alms rite, Rajawedha, revived under Demak as a vehicle for Islam.[2]

In Yogyakarta, the article says, Garebeg is held three times a year: Garebeg Mulud on 12 Rabiul Awal for the Prophet's birthday, Garebeg Sawal on 1 Sawal at the end of the fasting month, and Garebeg Besar on 10 Dzulhijah for Idul Adha.[2]

The centre of the ceremony, in the palace's account, is the gunungan, mountains of produce, vegetables and snacks. It names five kinds, Kakung, Putri, Darat, Gepak and Pawuhan, and a sixth, Gunungan Brama, added when Garebeg Mulud falls in a year Dal, once in the eight-year Javanese windu. The gunungan are carried from the palace to the Masjid Gedhe, prayed over by the palace's Kyai Penghulu, and then taken by the crowd, who believe the food carries a blessing. The article also recalls Garebeg's political past, when outlying regents had to attend as a sign of loyalty and staying away could be read as rebellion.[2]

What happened in 2026

The palace's reports of the 2026 cycle (the Javanese year Be 1960) show the textbook form and the current practice diverging, and a reader should not assume the description above is what will happen next time.

Sekaten ran from 20 to 25 August 2026, the 6th to the 11th of Mulud, according to the palace's report on its closing night. On 25 August Sultan Hamengku Bawono Ka 10 heard the reading of the Prophet's history in the Masjid Gedhe and scattered udhik-udhik at both pagongan and in the mosque. Then, in the report's words, unlike in previous years, the gamelan were carried back to the palace straight after the Sultan left the mosque.[3]

Garebeg Mulud on 26 August 2026 had no gunungan. The palace's report describes a simplified ceremony at Bangsal Srimanganti in which 4,000 rengginang, rice-cake alms, were distributed to the Abdi Dalem, the palace's courtiers. A palace official quoted there says the Sultan's instruction to simplify Garebeg has applied since Garebeg Besar in the year Dal 1959, and that there were no gunungan and no soldiers' procession escorting them.[4]

Some of it was ticketed. The palace's tourism site sold entry to watch the Kondur Gangsa procession from the Pagelaran on 25 August 2026, with gates opening at 18:00 WIB, and said the admission included a candle and a plastic bag for footwear. It set event rules: arrive 30 minutes early, sleeved clothing, photographs or video only from your seat, no flip-flops, no skirts or shorts, no hats and no awisan batik.[5] These were the 2026 terms, kept here as history.

Where the palace's pages disagree

Two details differ between the palace's own pages, and a third is described differently without being clearly in conflict.

• Where Miyos Gangsa was seen. The Sekaten article has the gamelan carried at midnight from the Bangsal Pancaniti to the mosque and does not mention the Pagelaran.[1] The tourism site's 2026 event page says Miyos Gangsa was held publicly at the Pagelaran pavilion on 19 August.[5] Neither page says whether the Pagelaran was a viewing point on the established route or a change to it.
• Where the gamelan went back to. The 2026 report says they were set down again at Bangsal Trajumas in the Srimanganti complex.[3] The tourism site's events list says they were carried back to the Bangsal Pancaniti.[6]
• When. The Sekaten article has Kondur Gangsa at 23:00, when the playing stops;[1] the 2026 report says that year the gamelan left straight after the Sultan did, and calls this a change from previous years.[3]

XTOUR's reading is that the explainer describes the established form and the 2026 report what actually happened that year; neither says which will apply next time.

What XTOUR does not know

The next Sekaten and Garebeg dates were not announced on the palace's websites when XTOUR checked on 11 October 2026,[6][8] and XTOUR does not convert the Javanese calendar into Western dates for future years. It does not know whether future Garebeg will return to the full gunungan procession, whether public viewing will be ticketed again, or what crowd arrangements apply. The palace's events page and news pages are where it publishes its ceremonies.

For the palace's everyday visit units and rules, see Visiting the Kraton of Yogyakarta. For how ceremonies figure in Yogyakarta's World Heritage inscription, see the Cosmological Axis of Yogyakarta. For the city, see the Yogyakarta destination page.