From: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org (basia-digest) To: basia-digest@smoe.org Subject: basia-digest V10 #174 Reply-To: basia@smoe.org Sender: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-basia-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "basia-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. basia-digest Wednesday, August 17 2005 Volume 10 : Number 174 Today's Subjects: ----------------- OOT: August 17 Celebration ["Desianto F. W." ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 11:40:50 -0700 (PDT) From: "Desianto F. W." Subject: OOT: August 17 Celebration Hello all, I hope everybody is OK. Just want to fill the quiet days in the list; I send some photos of the August 17 Celebration in my small village. The photos were taken in August 16 night, using the camera in my cell- phone; so forgive me for the poor quality. Unfortunately, for those who are in smoe.org, you won't be able to see the photos, unless one of you having double membership is able to put it in a particular page, the thing that I can't work out. But don't worry, I'll give you the story. Our villagers have some customs in celebrating the Independence Day. Besides organizing some games just like I've told you all, another custom is doing "tirakat" - a kind of activity to give thanks to God for the Independence Day. In my village, tirakat is usually held by closing a street, covering it by spreading some mats, then people come, sit down on "the street", and food and drinks are prepared. The tirakat is started by the chief of the village by giving a welcome speech. Then, a person who is considered as the respected senior villager is asked to give some recollections or sometimes advisory speeches. Next, after singing the Indonesian National Anthem and praying, the event is formally opened by cutting the peak of the "tumpeng", which is prepared hours before, done by another respected senior villager. Tumpeng is a kind of ceremonial symbol, made by rice, shaped to mountain-like, completed with side-dishes, and put on a flat-rounded bamboo basket called "tampah". Then, it is passed to the oldest villager as an honor before everybody eat the tumpeng and other food provided. You can say that it's like having an open door (or open space?) feast on the street. About what food I eat and the drink, you can see it in the photos. It is yellow rice - actually it is white rice but colored using curcuma and other spices of course, sliced scramble egg, fried peanut and tofu with chili, fried softened potatoes, two slices of cucumber, a banana, and a glass of tea..... :-) Everybody come to the celebration. Men, women, boys, girls, even kids. Everybody have fun. Chatting, joking, etc., basically all activities that make people feel so closely related together. No different between the rich and the poor, blue and white collar workers, old and young, a truck driver and a director, etc., everybody is blended together. Sometimes, door prizes are given by drawing lots just to add some fun. When the night gets late, women and children usually go home; some of them are busy cleaning the dishes, while men and sometimes boys have their own activities such as chatting or just hanging around. Some of them usually stay awake until the dawn comes and some of them "patrol" around the village to keep the village in peace. There is a belief that by staying awake all night long before the Independence Day, one can be wiser by understanding how hard the independence reached and defended was by the war heroes. Staying awake all night long is nothing if compared to what the war heroes did. By understanding this, he/she will be thankful for the independence and sometimes he/she will promise to him/herself to do better in the future. And me? Of course, right now I'm unable to stay awake because I worked quite hard in the daytime today. Surely, I need a good night sleep but don't worry; I still keep the Independence Day spirit in my heart. That's all for now. Have a nice day! Desianto F. W. ____________________________________________________ Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 01tumpeng.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 02opening.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 03cutting_tumpeng.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 04children.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 05giving_prize.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 06my_meal.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 07men_gathering.jpg] [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type image/jpeg which had a name of 08staying_awake.jpg] ------------------------------ End of basia-digest V10 #174 ****************************