Merry Christmas everyone! Christmas is always a wonderful time when not just children receive gifts but also adults. In Germany, there are Christmas markets everywhere. In Indonesia, however, Christmas is not so festive. Nonetheless, there is also another festival or annual event that is being celebrated just like Christmas.
Indonesia is a country full of diversity; we have many cultures, languages and also religions. Indonesia has currently five state-recognised religions with Muslim being the largest population. Therefore, we have many national holidays, for example, the Eid al-Fitr.
Every year in the ninth month, Muslims worldwide has a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community. They will fast from sunrise to sunset and accordingly, they refrain not only from food and drink but also from tobacco products, sexual relations, and sinful behavior. They are devoting themselves instead to salat (prayer), recitation of the Quran, and charities or doing good things.
The holiday of Eid al-Fitr which marks the end of Ramadan and the beginning of Shawwal, the next lunar month, is declared after a crescent new moon has been sighted or after completion of thirty days of fasting if no sighting of the moon is possible. Eid celebrates the return to a more natural disposition (fitra) of eating, drinking, and marital intimacy.
In Indonesia, Eid is more well-known as Lebaran. Typically, people will take and have a week of holiday. They will return to their home town or city to celebrate with their families and to ask forgiveness from parents, in-laws, and other elders. Usually, at this time the highways are full of cars and buses, the train and airplane tickets are going to sold out.
Festivities start the night before with chanting the Takbir and lighting lamps and fireworks. On the day itself, after Eid prayer in the morning, zakat for the poor are distributed in the mosques.
Eid is one of my favorite months in the year because I have many Muslims family, so, I usually travel to them. There will be a special Lebaran meal, which I loved and one of them called Rendang. There are also other dishes such as ketupat, opor ayam, sambal goreng ati (a condiment of chillies), sayur lodeh and lemang (a type of glutinous rice cake cooked in bamboo).
Another important thing is also the Lebaran money. It is a customs for older, established or married couple to give uang lebaran, a small amount of money for children of their own, relatives’ as well as neighbours’. Idul Fitri is a very joyous day for children as adults give them money in colourful envelopes. To cater to these customs, Indonesian Banks usually open some money changer counters to change larger to smaller denominations several days before Lebaran. The denominations may vary from 1,000, 2,000, 5,000 to 10,000 rupiah.
It is also common for many Muslims in Indonesia to visit the graves of their loved ones several days before Ramadhan. During this visit, they will clean the grave, recite Ya-Seen, a chapter (sura) from the Quran and also carry out the tahlil ceremony. They did all of that to ask God to forgive both the dead and the living for their sins.
That is all for today’s post. I hope you enjoyed reading this post; and how about you? Do you also have an annual celebration that you like, other than Christmas? Let me know in the comment section below! Thank you and see you in my next post.
Indonesia Tour 