Some Festivals and Holidays in Indonesia

Procession to the temple festival known as Odalan

There are six official religions formally recognized by the Indonesian government. They are Islam, (Catholic and Protestant) Christian, Buddhist, Hindu and including Confucius which was recognized officially in 2006 by the Indonesian government. Since there are only six religions being legally recognized by the government, therefore there are six major religious festivals and holidays celebrated all over Indonesia by granting holidays to schools children and government officers. In addition to those six official major holidays, there are also a few minor religious holidays for each religion. The Indonesian people are quite tolerant with each other, to show respect to other people, when one of the other religious practicers celebrate their Holy Days, the others should respect that Holy Day by at least not doing anything which cause offend to those people who celebrate it.

Hindu Balinese pray inside the temple in front of the meru shrine

The following festivals and holidays are considered as the National Holidays by the Indonesian people. They are as follows:

1. Idul Fitri is a Holy Day for the Muslim faith. The Idul Fitri falls during the holy month of Ramadan Muslim, thus it is between October and November of the Gregorian calendar. During the month of Ramadan the Muslim throughout the world observe fasting begun a month before the peak of the Holy Day of Idul Fitri. The Muslim started their fast by having early meal at about 03:00 in the morning called sahur, and then they attend the morning-prayer called Subuh at the mosque nearby their houses. While observing the fasting, they cannot eat, drink, smoke from the sunrise to the sunset. Some people say that they cannot have a sexual intercourse for a month. The girls or women who get their period during the holy month of Ramadan should cancel their fast for the duration of their period. Even though, the Muslim have to observe the fast for a month they still have to do their daily activities as usual. The school children have to go to schools, the civil servants have to go to the offices or any other official workers have to do their works normally. Observing the fasting day during the Ramadan does not mean they stop their activities, the fasting is one of the ways to test their mental and spiritual strength. According to the Muslim belief, those who can not observe the fast appropriately means that they do not have both mental and spiritual strength. As usual the Muslim do the prayers five times a day started early in the morning (isa), when the sun rises (subuh), mid-day (luhur or duhur), in the afternoon (ashar) and when the sun sets called maghrib. If we put together the beginning letter of each prayer, it will produce the word Islam. During the fasting on the Ramadan, the Muslim will break their fast (buka puasa) after maghrib. They should drink something light (for example: sweet coconut juice, sweet palm juice) before they eat their main course.

A few days before the Idul Fitri, the mothers of the family prepare many types of dry foods (crackers, chips, nuts) to be served to the guests who come to their house. This ritual is called nyambi, any body from different religious practicers can come to visit the Muslim family to have some drink and food. On the day of the Idul Fitri, the family members, relatives or close friends will come for silaturahmi (to forgive or to be forgiven) for any mistakes they have done both consciously and unconsciously. Then they have the most famous food for Idul Fitri which is called Ketupat usually combined with chicken opor or other kind of curries to serve it.

Besides Idul Fitri, there are some minor festivals and holydays observed by the Muslim faith. They are Hari Raya Idul Adha, Tahun Baru Hijriyah, Maulud Nabi Muhamad S.A.W and Isra’ Mi’raj Nabi Muhamad S.A.W.

Muslims made ketupat (steamed-rice in woven coconut leaves) to celebrate the Idul Fitri

2. Nyepi or Silent Day. Nyepi is the New Year of Hindu based on the Saka year.  It falls every year between the months of March or April or Sasih Kesanga of the local calendar. The Saka New Year is started one day after the new moon (Tilem) of the sasih kesanga (March or April). During the Nyepi Day, the Hindus observe a one-day fast in a wide sense. Nyepi itself denotes a meaning of “amati geni” that means that the Hindu people do not eat, do not work, do not smoke, or there is no car, no TV or nothing can be done if required electricity or energy or fire. Basically they do not do any activities which need energy since energy equals to the fire (Balinese: geni or Sanskrit: agni) both fire inside your body (the unseen) energy or fire in reality (the visible fire).

One day before Nyepi, the Hindus purify themselves and their deities, ancestors in the ocean or nearby river. They go on a big procession by walking or by trucks with the images inside the wooden palanquin with elaborate offering which each of the offering symbolizing each deity of the village temples. In the river or in the ocean, the priests or priestess first do the prayer to ask permission to the gods or the goddess of the water usually Dewi Gangga to bless them with the tirta (holy water) for purification for all of them, both the devotees and the deities. Usually this procession ended up by putting back the deities in the temples and continued with the offering called Caru to the chthonic spirits on the ground of each temple and on the ground and the entrance gate of each household. Since the majority of the Hindus in the Indonesian archipelago concentrated in Bali island, the Balinese usually perform a big ritual in Besakih Temple, the mother temple of Bali. Not all Hindus can observe fast during the Nyepi Day, therefore after finishing performing ritual both for the deities and the chthonic spirits, the mothers are busy preparing enough food for provision for the next day especially for the children and the sick relatives.



Going to the holy spring for purification ceremony during the temple festival

Sometimes, the urban people of Hindu in Bali create ogoh-ogoh or any kind of images made of bamboos frame and covered with colorful decorative papers. The images can be of the political figures, demons, vehicle or other kind depending on their up-to-date creation. This is a self-funding project by the youth association of the villages. The ogoh-ogoh will be carried around the town by the young people one day before Nyepi. While carry them around they make a lot of noise or most of the time accompanied by gamelan orchestra to be more noisy. The purpose of the noise is to scare away the evil spirits or to entertain them with the caru offerings in the cross-road of the town. After the procession the ogoh-ogoh were left alone in the cross-road to wait for their decay.

Ogoh-Ogoh is a demonic figure done to celebrate the Saka New Year

In addition to Nyepi, there are also the minor holidays which fall every 210 days of the local (ethnic) calendar are only celebrated locally, that means that only the civil servants of the official governments and school children of the local festivals will have holidays according to the policy of the local government. For examples; Galungan is one of the Hindu holy days celebrated every 210 days, therefore the schools and government offices will have holidays at least one day for the peak of the ceremony, but sometimes they have three-day holidays. Odalan when the Balinese celebrate the birthday of the temples. Bali has many holydays and holidays. There are holy days for the trees, cars or electronic devices, animals, etc. There are also holidays when the Balinese have to attend the adapt ceremony like Ngaben (cremation), tooth-filing, odalan and many more. The word “Bali” has been given an acronym meaning as Banyak for the Ba and Libur for the Li (Bali).

3. Waisak or Wesak is the most important Holy Day of the Buddhist which falls sometime on the full-moon either in April, May or June. The Waisak or Wesak originally comes from (Pali: “Wesakha”, Sanskrit: “Waishakha”). The celebration of the Waisak is to commemorate the Birth of Siddhartha Buddha Gautama, the day when he gained the Perfect Enlightenment and the day when Buddha gained his “Parinibbana” or his Death. This Holy Day characterized by the activities of charity by giving away some food, money or goods to the poor, offering to the monasteries (viharas), chanting sacred hymns (sutta), meditation or listening to the Dhamma.

In Indonesia, one day before Waisak, early in the morning the religious leaders of the Buddhist faith gained the blessing water (Air Berkah) from Umbul Jumprit, a village in Central Java. First the water must be spiritually purified by performing some prayer (puja bhakti). The (Air Berkah) blessing water then brought to Candi Mendut and stored there. After collecting the blessing water, then they get the Api Dharma in Mrapen also in a village of Central Java. After performing the puja bhakti by the religious leaders the Api Dharma from Mrapen then brought to Candi Mendut stored together with the Air Berkah. In the evening, there is a puja bhakti performed by going with lit candles around the temple of Candi Borobudur. The Candi Borobudur is the biggest Buddhist monument in South East Asia or even the biggest in the world.

Waisak celebration in Borobudur

The next day, the peak day of Waisak, there is a preparation for a procession in Candi Mendut after an hour of preparation, then there is a procession from Candi Mendut toward the great temple of Candi Borobudur. On the way to Borobudur the procession has to pass-by at Candi Pawon, then the procession directly go to the great primary altar of Candi Borobudur. There is a talk on Dharma (religious duty) by the great Bhante accompanied by other religious leaders.

One our before noon, the religious leaders and other devotees do the meditation at the great altar of Candi Borobudur to welcome the minutes of the peak of the Waisak day, concluded with lunch and entertainment.

Waisak celebration in Borobudur

4. Christmas is called Natal in Indonesian word celebrated by both Catholic and Protestant Christen which falls every 25 of December. Like other celebration of the Christmas all over the world, Christmas in Indonesia is also celebrated by decorating the churches with colorful decorations, beautiful Christmas trees. The malls or the shopping centers are also hung with banners which say “Selamat Hari Natal dan Tahun Baru so and so” which means “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”. There are many Christmas cards and new-year cards being sold in the stores. Some packages with instant food or any other kind of edible thing are also available in the store. During the Christmas people of Christian faith go the church either Catholic or Protestant churches. The boys and girls are dressed in their new beautiful clothes. Actually Paskah is a big Holy Day for the Christian but the celebration is not as lively as the Christmas. The main factor for that is because the Christmas always falls a few days before the New Year; that means people in Indonesia get longer holidays for the Christmas through the New Year. Those of Christian who seek jobs in the cities who come from remote villages Christmas is a preferable holiday for going back to their villages.

Celebrating Christmas with family and friends in Seatle

5. The Independent Day of the Indonesian is celebrated every August 17^th everyone in the country. Not just in Indonesia but also in other countries where the Indonesian has its embassy. The celebration of the Independent is usually very cheerful. A few days before the flag-raising ceremony carried out in the 17 of August, the school children race and compete through games, quizzes to win some prizes from the school funded by the government.

In the village levels, there are some sports tournaments, singing traditional songs contest, arts contest sponsored by the local government.

The members of the PKK (Pendidikan Kesejahtraan Keluarga), the Education for the prosperity of the family which targeted the house wives as the members. It is the house-wives play very important roles in educating their children. This government project is aimed to teach women how important to acknowledge the prosperity of the family by giving proper food, good education, healthy. The way to get this project succeed is by promoting family-planning which means two children is enough in one family. Before the family-planning program of the government, one couple sometimes had four to nine children. This program was successfully implemented in Indonesia. However, this two-children-enough program left some problem for some families. This topic will be described under the marriage. Anyway, the PKK members of several villages will get together in the office of the head of the village to show their abilities in cooking, artistic talents, knowledge about many things which support the prosperity of the family. Those who win will bring homes some prizes which they share equally, if the prize can be shared. Or they can deposit it in the bank as the property of the members if the prize in cash.

The Gamelan members also get together in the same place and compete with each other for their skill is playing classic melody (a compulsory) and how they play a new creation (they choose their own preference).

To make the celebration more attractive and cheerful, people usually build a slippery post of straight palm tree oiled with fat or grease. On top of the tree, there are many attractive prizes they can grab when he/she can manage to climb the slippery post. This game is the most effective and attractive for many people.

People climb the slippery post to get some prizes on top

On the day of the Independent, all the school children, civil servants, government officers, armies attend the ceremony of the flag-raising in yard of their schools or offices.