'Cap Go Meh' celebrations to brighten Jakarta
'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.