Inside Indonesia's Eid Al Fitr Celebration

The most anticipated festival in the country

Every culture has this tradition that celebrates togetherness & in Indonesia, one of the most celebrated festival is Eid Al Fitr. Being the country with the largest muslim population, this muslim celebration comes with its own tradition. It is associated with home coming and big exodus from city to the villages as well as reunion with colleagues or childhood friends. Typically, I avoid this holiday because I don’t celebrate it but also because I hate answering small talks or even initiating one. So, I am normally not in the country or being in a place where the celebration is not too significant. Unfortunately, this year while I was planning to get out of the country before April, due to my grandma’s passing and other family matters, I decided to stay in the country.

The Eid Al Fitr and its tradition

Eid Al Fitr, is celebrated once a year with a lot of traditions attach to it. There are pre-celebration but also during the big day. Before the big day, everything is closed for about a week and that creates an exodus from the capital to the villages where people would meet their families or childhood friends. In order to celebrate Eid, people also prepare cakes, cookies or food that will be served during the big day. Some people also shops for matching colored clothing for their family. During the big day, people would visit each other and little children will receive monetary gifts. Usually, the recipients are elderly and little children and/or unemployed family members. I find this tradition similar to Chinese New Year where hongbao is also distributed. Then people will visit each other houses and typically, they will stay /visit the eldest member of the family. So, the youngest member of the family must visit the eldest and not the other way round. In my family, since my grandma was the oldest, a lot of people visited us including her sibling but because she’s passed away, our family members have to visit my grandma sibling because he’s the oldest member in the family.

The spirit it carries

For me, as the oldest in the family, I also have to give gifts to my youngest cousin and anyone who doesn't work. If they’re working, they are not eligible to receive monetary gifts. I used to receive a lot when I was a kid and always loved this part. I think this tradition teaches us the joy of giving and sharing.

Before Eid and because everyone is sort of having a whole weekend off, there are always reunion. People who work overseas, even in the capital comes back to their hometown. There are some negative aspect of this tradition because some reunion is a way people to brag about their success and their wealth. But there are also parts where it’s purely reminiscing about the old days. Fortunately, I have decent friends and we don’t talk about what we do rather talking about something that sparks nostalgia and all the fun things we used to do. I think that sometimes remembering how far we’ve come was also an energy booster and something that makes us feel like we’ve progressed in life.

A parallel in another culture where similar spirit is also displayed

There are also getting together with family where we would enjoy dinner together. Sometimes we’re catching up on what we do and sometimes we talk about nothing. What matters is the spirit of the festival where people get together and enjoy the celebration. However, these days people find this thing causes them to feel depressed because they’re not where they want to be and feel insecure when asked some personal questions such as, “ when are you getting married? “ and/or something similar. Growing up, I find those questions a little bit out of the line but also, I am getting used to understanding, that’s just how Indonesians do their small talk.

It’s fairly interesting that I felt Songkran was similar where people from Bangkok travel to the Isaan region and want to celebrate the new year with their family. While I don’t know the details but from what I gathered, both celebration caries similar spirit. This is the first time, I actually enjoy this celebration rather than trying to avoid it. When I detach myself from it and see it from an anthropological perspective,this particular celebration has a lot of layers to unfold.