'Cap Go Meh' celebrations to brighten Jakarta

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Exciting celebrations of Cap Go Meh are being held in Jakarta openly to mark the end of Chinese New Year festivities that started on Feb. 1.

The celebrations, which started on Saturday and will peak on Sunday, are the first open celebrations since all Chinese cultural activities were effectively banned by the government nearly 40 years ago.

The Cap Go Meh are usually celebrated 15 days after the lunar new year on a full moon night. In the Chinese language Cap Go means 15 and Meh means bright.

One of the celebrations will be held at Fatahillah Park, West Jakarta, on Feb. 16, 2003.

It will start from Wihara Dharma Djaja, West Jakarta, where at least six toapekong (effigies of gods) will be taken in a procession from Wihara Dharma Djaja, Jl. Kemenangan III, Jl. Asemka, Fatahillah Park, Jl. Gajahmada, Glodok, and back to the Wihara Dharma Djaja.

In Fatahillah Park, the toapekong will be welcomed by several artistic attractions from different Indonesian cultures, such as barongsai (lion dance) and liong (dragon dance), reog (Javanese traditional dance from Ponorogo, East Java) and ondel-ondel (Betawi traditional dance).

Ernawati Sugondo, a member of the organizing committee of the celebration and founder of the Association of Chinese-Indonesian Families (PMTSI), said that the committee had modified the original event into an "Indonesian" Cap Go Meh celebration.

"We have invited other Indonesian cultures because we want to show people that Cap Go Meh is not an exclusive celebration. It's a people festival; everybody is invited to enjoy it regardless of race and belief," she said.

The celebration is being organized by the Chinese-Indonesian community in cooperation with the Jakarta city administration.

Besides this celebration, the management of Glodok Plaza, a shopping mall in Glodok, West Jakarta, has also arranged Cap Go Meh celebrations on Feb. 15 and Feb. 16, 2003.

The celebrations include many items, such as barongsai, wushu (Chinese martial arts) demonstrations, a Chinese chess tournament, potehi (Chinese puppet show) and a Jakarta Tempo Doeloe photo exhibition showing pictures of sites in Jakarta's Chinatown taken a long time ago.