Christmas in Indonesia , locally known as Natal from the Portuguese word for Christmas, is celebrated with various traditions throughout the country.
Christmas in Indonesia , locally known as Natal from the Portuguese word for Christmas, is celebrated with various traditions throughout the country.
Indonesia has approximately 28 million Christians, of which about 70% are Protestant and 30% are Roman Catholics. [1]
In regions with a Christian majority, both Protestants and Catholics celebrate Christmas with ceremonies and local food. [2] In big cities, shopping centers are decorated with plastic Christmas trees and Santa Claus figures (locally known as Sinterklas , derived from the Dutch word Sinterklaas ). Many local television channels broadcast Christmas musical concerts, and the government organizes the annual national Christmas celebration. In addition to traditional foods, there are also unique Christmas Day foods, such as traditional desserts like nastar (pineapple tart) and kastengel (from Dutch word kaasstengel), or 'putri salju'. [3]
In North Jakarta, Indonesians of Portuguese descent live mainly in Kampung Tugu. After Christmas Mass, Christians in Kampung Tugu will visit the cemetery next to their local church and start the rabo-rabo tradition.
The rabo-rabo tradition consists of playing Kroncong music and dancing together around the village area. Locals will sing and visit each other's relatives. Relatives who are visited must later join the game until a chain of players forms on the streets. The visits will continue until they arrive at the last house in the area. [5]
In the Papua region, after Christmas Mass, a ritual cooking of pork for feasting is held using a Barapen (grilling stone). The pork meat is cooked in between hot stones that are heated using wood. Instead of using matches, Papuan people scrape the wood continuously to produce heat to set it on fire. In order to prepare the Barapen, Papuan men dig a hole to put the hot stones in. At the same time, Papuan women prepare vegetables such as sweet potato, water spinach, fern, cassava, spinach, and papaya. Hot stones are stacked on the base of the hole and the pork and vegetables are put into the hole and covered with another layer of hot stones. The pork is cooked in the hole for half a day. The tradition of Barapen is an expression of gratitude, togetherness, sharing, and love, characterised by eating pork together. [6] [7]
In Negeri Naku, South Leitimur, Ambon, there is a ceremony called cuci negeri (cleaning the nation). This ceremony symbolises the purification and liberation of sins from the local people and their environment. The cuci negeri starts with a gathering in the community function hall for each clan to hold their own traditional ritual. From there, the Ambonese walk to the traditional function hall.They sing and dance to the sounds of the tifa (traditional music instrument). Along the way, the women bring some offerings like betel, areca nut, and traditional drink called sopi. [8] During Christmas eve celebrations in the Maluku, church bells will ring and ships will sound their sirens. [7] [9]
In the Yogyakarta area, Christmas celebrations are marked by a wayang kulit adaptation of the Nativity scene. Church Mass is led by the priest who wears traditional Javanese attire (wearing beskap and blankon) and speaks in the local language. Similar to Eid al-Fitr, during Christmas time, people visit friends and family; children may receive money in an envelope from elders. [7] [9]
The pre-Christmas celebrations in Manado start from 1 December when the regional government officers go on the "Christmas Safari" and observe the Mass in a different district every day. As part of tradition, some residents of Manado join a carnival or visit and clean their families' graves. The series of Christmas celebrations will finish in the first week of January with a festival called kunci taon. During this festival, there is a carnival across the region featuring unique costumes. [7] [9]
Most Christian villages in Bali are located on the southern side of the island. In those villages, road decorations called penjor (made from yellow coconut leaves) are made for Christmas, which symbolise the Anantaboga dragon. The Christmas celebration draws influence from Balinese Hinduism. [10]
In Bali, the Christmas tree is made from chicken feathers. This unique tree has been imported to some European countries. [11]
Torajan people celebrate Christmas by having a cultural festival called Lovely December. This festival consists of dancing, a culinary celebration, cultural carnival, bamboo music performance and handicraft exhibition. The festival is ended by fireworks and Lettoan procession which is held on 26 December. [7] [12] Lettoan is a ritual of having pig parade with cultural symbols that represent three dimensions of human life. Those three symbols are:
For the Batak in North Sumatera, Christmas Day is always followed by sacrificing an animal. The local people will save money for months beforehand and buy this animal together. This tradition is called marbinda and shows togetherness and mutual cooperation. The sacrificed animal can be a pig, a buffalo, or an ox, and the meat will be shared to all the people that participate in the purchasing of the animal. [7] [14]
Every year, the Ministry of Religious Affairs holds the National Christmas Celebration of the Republic of Indonesia. The program started in 1993 after a suggestion from Tiopan Bernhard Silalahi, who was Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform in the Sixth Development Cabinet, who has Protestant background, to the then President of Indonesia Suharto. [15] Since that time, the National Christmas Celebration has been held almost every year (and was held as a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-21). Exceptions were in 2004, which was canceled as a condolence for the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, in 2018, which was canceled as a condolence for the victims of the 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami, and in 2022, which was also planned to be cancelled before being delayed at the last minute as a condolence for the victims of the 2022 West Java earthquake. [16]
Until 2013, National Christmas Celebration was held in Jakarta and the most common used venue was Jakarta Convention Center. [15] Since 2014, the tradition was changed by the then newly-elected President of Indonesia Joko Widodo. [17] This is the list of National Christmas Celebration hosts since 2014:
| Year | Host | Province | Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Jayapura City [18] | Papua | 27 December 2014 | For the first time National Christmas Celebration was held outside Jakarta Special Capital Region |
| 2015 | Kupang City [19] | East Nusa Tenggara | 28 December 2015 | |
| 2016 | Minahasa Regency [20] | North Sulawesi | 27 December 2016 | For the first time National Christmas Celebration was held in a regency |
| 2017 | Pontianak City [21] | West Kalimantan | 28 December 2017 | For the first time outside the capital of Indonesia, National Christmas Celebration will be held in a province and a city whose majority of population are not Christians |
| 2019 | Bogor [22] | West Java | 27 December 2019 | |
| 2023 | Surabaya | East Java | 27 December 2023 |
A regency, sometimes incorrectly referred to as a district, is an administrative division of Indonesia, directly under a province and on the same level with city (kota). Regencies are divided into districts.
The Christmas season or festive season, also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning late November to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrations during this time create a peak season for the retail sector extending to the end of the period. Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are customary traditions in various locales.
The songkok or peci or kopiah is a cap widely worn in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the southern Philippines, and southern Thailand, most commonly among Muslim males. It has the shape of a truncated cone, usually made of black or embroidered felt, cotton or velvet. It is also worn by males in formal occasions such as weddings and funerals or festive occasions such as the Eid ul-Fitr and Eid al-Adha holidays. In Indonesia, the peci is also associated with the nationalist movement.
Anies Rasyid Baswedan is an Indonesian academic, activist, and politician who served as the Governor of Jakarta from 2017 to 2022. A student activist and political analyst before entering public service, he served as rector of Paramadina University before being appointed to be Minister of Education and Culture in Joko Widodo administration. He is also the founder of Indonesia Mengajar, a program that selects, trains, and assigns university graduates to serve in a one-year teaching mission across the country. He is the grandson of nationalist, journalist, and freedom fighter Abdurrahman Baswedan, and the cousin of Novel Baswedan.
Presidential elections were held in Indonesia on 9 July 2014, with former general Prabowo Subianto contesting the elections against the governor of Jakarta, Joko Widodo; incumbent president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was constitutionally barred from seeking a third term in office. On 22 July the General Elections Commission (KPU) announced Joko Widodo's victory. He and his vice president, Jusuf Kalla, were sworn-in on 20 October 2014, for a five-year term.
The Pasundan Christian Church was officially established in Indonesia on 14 November 1934. It has 51 congregations and 33,000 members. It is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC).
Balikpapan–Samarinda Toll Road or Balsam Toll Road is an expressway which is constructed to connect Balikpapan with Samarinda of East Kalimantan, Indonesia as well as the proposed new capital city of the country.
Muhammad Tito Karnavian is an Indonesian retired police officer who is currently serving as Minister of Home Affairs since 2019. Previously, he served as chief of the Indonesian National Police from 2016 to 2019 and chief of the National Counter Terrorism Agency in 2016.
The Pesanggrahan River is a river with the upstream in the Bogor Regency, flowing through the cities of Depok, Jakarta and Tangerang, Banten. The river passes the districts of Tanah Sereal, Bojong Gede, Sawangan, Limo, Kebayoran Lama, Pesanggrahan, Kembangan, and Kebun Jeruk before flowing into the Cengkareng Drain. Based on 2005 data, 55 percent of the watershed area of the Pesanggrahan River is occupied by housing, only 7 percent is still forests, 20 percent rice fields, and 13 percent other agriculture fields.
February 2017 Jakarta protests refer to a series of mass protest led by Islamist movements which took place on 11 February 2017 and 21 February 2017 in Jakarta, Indonesia, and dubbed as the Action 112 and the Action 212 respectively. The protests were aimed against the incumbent governor of Jakarta Special Capital Region Basuki Tjahaja Purnama for an alleged blasphemy of the Quran, the Islamic holy book.
Kampung Tugu is a historical neighborhood located in the northwestern Jakarta in the island of Java. Kampung Tugu grew from the land granted by the government of the Dutch East Indies to the converted Mardijker people in the 17th century. From this land, a Christian settlement grew and developed its own culture. Kampung Tugu is one of the oldest Christian neighborhoods in the western part of Indonesia. Today, the Christian neighborhood of Kampung Tugu is part of the Administrative Village of Tugu in Koja Subdistrict of North Jakarta, Indonesia.
Joko Widodo's presidential campaign in 2014 was announced on 14 March 2014, when his political party PDI-P declared him as the party's candidate for the upcoming election in 2014. He was then the Governor of Jakarta, and previously the Mayor of Surakarta. With former vice president Jusuf Kalla as his running mate, he was elected as President of Indonesia following election on 9 July and official KPU announcement on 22 July.
2019 (MMXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2019th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 19th year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 10th and last year of the 2010s decade.
Rocky Gerung is an Indonesian political commentator, philosopher, academic and public intellectual.
South Papua, officially the South Papua Province, is an Indonesian province located in the southern portion of Papua, following the borders of the Papuan customary region of Anim Ha. Formally established on 11 November 2022 and including the four most southern regencies that were previously part of the province of Papua and before 11 December 2002 comprised a larger Merauke Regency, it covers an area of 117,849.16 km2, and it had a population of 522,215 according to the official estimates for mid 2022, making it the least populous province in Indonesia.
Arinal Djunaidi is an Indonesian politician and former civil servant who is the current Governor of Lampung.
Puteri Indonesia Pariwisata is one of the titles granted by the Puteri Indonesia beauty pageant. The titleholders of Puteri Indonesia Pariwisata represent Indonesia in Miss Charm. The president-owner of Puteri Indonesia Pariwisata are The Royal Highest Family of Surakarta Sunanate, Princess Mooryati Soedibyo and Princess Putri Kuswisnuwardhani. Puteri Indonesia Pariwisata is traditionally crowned in March, alongside the celebration of International Women's Day.
Highland Papua is a province of Indonesia, which roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Lano-Pago, shortened to La Pago. It covers an area of 51,213.34 km2 (19,773.58 sq mi) and had a population of 1,430,459 according to the official estimates as at mid 2022.
2023 (MMXXIII) is the current year, and is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar, the 2023rd year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 23rd year of the 3rd millennium and the 21st century, and the 4th year of the 2020s decade.
Media related to Christmas in Indonesia at Wikimedia Commons
