Muslim boys carry balloons during 'magengan kubro' celebration to welcome Ramadhan at Al Akbar Mosque in Surabaya, East Java, on Friday. (Antara Photo/Zabur Karuru)
This Is How Indonesia Welcomes Ramadan
BY :ANTARA PHOTO
MAY 04, 2019
Indonesian Muslims welcome Ramadan, the fasting month which starts today, with great fanfare. It may seem like each region in this country of over 300 ethnic groups has its own way of marking the beginning of the holy month. Vespa fans in Karawang rode around the city in their heavily modified bikes that looked more like floats on a bedug parade; a kampung in Surabaya made a tumpeng (pile) of apem (rice flour pancakes) for a magengan kubro ceremony; in Boyolali, Central Java, Muslims swam in water springs to purify their body and soul in a ritual called padusan. Every celebration has both religious and traditional meaning. For Indonesian Muslims, Ramadan is not only an ascetic ritual of refraining from eating and drinking from dawn to dusk, but also a month of reflection to deepen their faith.
Vespa vans in Karawang, West Java, ride their modified bikes around town in a bedug parade on Saturday. (Antara Photo/M. Ibnu Chazar)People grab apem cakes from a float during a grebek gunungan ceremony in Jombang, East Java, on Friday. (Antara Photo/Syaiful Arif)Muslims take a dip in the Umbul Ngabean springs during a Padusan purification ritual in Boyolali, Central Java, on Saturday. (Antara Photo/Aloysius Jarot Nugroho)Muslims carry torches during a street parade in Bogor, West Java, on Friday. (Antara Photo/Yulius Satria Wijaya)Students in niqab during a street parade to welcome Ramadan in Banda Aceh. (Antara Photo/Irwansyah Putra)Cooking lemang (sticy rice cake) in bamboos – a Ramadan specialty – in Samatiga, West Aceh, on Saturday. (Antara Photo/Syifa Yulinnas)A tumpeng (pile) of apem (rice flour pancakes) at a magengan kubro ceremony. (Antara Photo/Zabur Karuru)Children carry Warak animal statues during a Dugder carnival in Semarang, Central Java, on Friday. (Antara Photo/R. Rekotomo)A man scatters flowers for the dead in Porong, East Java, on Saturday. The ground used to be a cemetery that was drowned by by hot mudflow from a botched gas drilling by Lapindo, a local mining company. (Antara Photo/Umarul Faruq)'Let's go to the mosque,' says a poster carried by a student during a Tarhib parade in Laweyan, a kampung in Solo, Central Java, on Saturday. (Antara Photo/Mohammad Ayudha)