No 'ketupat' for many Indonesian abroad
No 'ketupat' for many Indonesian abroad
By T. Sima Gunawan
JAKARTA (JP): Moslems across the world are busy with their spiritual and physical preparations for Idul Fitri which falls on Feb. 20 and Feb. 21 this year.
The Idul Fitri atmosphere is strongly felt in every corner of Indonesia. During Idul Fitri, family members gather and children bow crawl on their knees to ask forgiveness from their parents. A touching moment which often brings tears of joy.
Not all Indonesian Moslems, however, have the chance to celebrate Idul Fitri with their families and people they love most. Many will miss the takbir (recitation of God is great), and ketupat (rice cake).
Yul Mutia Kassimidis, a college student in San Jose, California, will even miss the shalat Ied or the Idul Fitri prayer.
"I won't be able to join the Ied prayer because I have a semester test," she told The Jakarta Post through the Internet.
This is her first Idul Fitri in USA. She left for America last year following her marriage to an American who has converted to Islam.
"There is no Idul Fitri atmosphere on campus or in my neighborhood. Everyday seems like the same, which is a big temptation to our faith," she said.
Yul had to explain in detail to her friends on campus why she did not eat or drink during the day.
"It was funny. At class breaks, I often sat with my friends in the cafe. And they kept asking why I would not eat or drink with them."
She often called her family in Jakarta when they were having pre-dawn meals, just to know what the menu was.
"I really miss the meal my mother cooks. We don't have kolak (compote and palm sugar in coconut milk) or asinan bangkoang (salted tuber) for the breaking of the fast. And I will surely miss my mother's ketupat and opor ayam (seasoned chicken) I used to eat during the Idul Fitri celebrations," she said.
Rully Nasrullah has been in the U.S. for almost two years. He is a college student in Beloit, Wisconsin and majors in economics and management.
Beloit is a small city with a population of about 35,000. Rully has several Indonesian friends on campus, but none of them are Moslems.
"This is my second Idul Fitri. The first time was very difficult for me because only a few people here celebrated Idul Fitri. But the hardest thing was the fact that my parents were not here. I couldn't see them to say minal aidin wal faizin (congratulations on Idul Fitri)," he said.
The most he could do was to call home.
"I missed the ketupat a lot. I'm really sick of American food," he said.
Last year, he said the Idul Fitri prayer with about 25 other Moslems in a small mosque, the only one in Beloit.
"I went there with several Moslem students from my school, two exchange students from Turkey and two Americans. We started praying at about 10 a.m. Before that, we did the same thing people in Jakarta do, saying the takbir. We recited Allahu Akbar for about half an hour, and that was it," Rully said.
"After the prayer, I went back to school and ate in the commons. The school provides us with a small room where we can invite friends over for lunch."
As Rully has gotten used to being far away from home, he is sure that he can handle the situation better this coming Idul Fitri.
"For sure, I know the meaning of family when they get together after I 'buzz' in here," he said.
Unlike Beloit and San Jose, Washington D.C. has a big Indonesian Moslem community. Last year, about 800 people joined the prayer at the Indonesian embassy, according to Adi Prajitno, who has been living in the city for nine years.
Some Indonesian Moslems who lived far from the embassy said their Idul Fitri prayers in Islamic centers or mosques in the city.
"Like the previous Idul Fitri celebrations, last year we shook hands with Pak Arifin Siregar, the ambassador, and had some snacks and soda," Prajitno said.
"After the Idul Fitri prayer, several families went over to my house to celebrate and ask for each other's forgiveness. We also had lunch together. Of course, we didn't have ketupat, but we still maintained the custom of eating together."
"My children did not go to school. They celebrated Idul Fitri with us," Prajitno, a father of five children, said.
He said on weekends he often received invitations to break the fast or for the tarawih prayer from other Indonesian families.
Prajitno works for a private company and said that most of his Indonesian friends are happy as their employers are very tolerant with the Islamic religious rituals.
Indonesian housekeepers employed by Saudi Arabians living in America work harder during Ramadhan.
"They told me they had to go to bed late in the evening because their employers asked them to do this and that," Prajitno told the Post.
Dutamardin Umar, president of the Washington D.C.-based Indonesian Moslems Association in America, said every weekend the Indonesian embassy in Washington D.C. invites Indonesian families to break the fast together.
Umar, vice president of The Golden Rabbit importer and wholesaler of Indonesian handicrafts, began living in the U.S. five years ago. About 500 of the 2,000 Indonesians in the city belong to the Indonesian Moslems Association. The association was inaugurated by Arifin Siregar in 1994.
"As usual, the coming Idul Fitri celebration will be centered in the Indonesian embassy compound," he said.
After the prayer, the Indonesians will be invited to the residence of the ambassador, where they will have Indonesian food.
"We will have good food. We can buy the spices and other ingredients in oriental food shops. They have bumbu pecel (salad dressing), terasi (fish paste made from shrimp), kecap Bango (soy sauce). If you want to make ketupat or lepat (sticky rice cake wrapped in banana leaves), you can use aluminum foil or plastic strips instead of janur (coconut leaves) and banana leaves," he said.
A few days after Idul Fitri, Indonesians usually visit one and another to ask for forgiveness.
"A gathering, scheduled to take place in an elementary school in Bethesda, Maryland, on March 3, will end this year's Idul Fitri celebrations," Umar said.
A bazaar will be held during the gathering to raise funds for the construction of an Indonesian mosque in Washington, D.C.
Last year, Idul Fitri celebrations in Melbourne, Australia, were also joyful, but Widyastuti Purbani, a student at Deakin University, felt empty.
"It was different from Idul Fitri at home," she said. "We didn't hear any sound of takbir and there was no beautiful sound of bedug (drums), either," she said.
It was her first Idul Fitri away from home. A teacher at the Institute of Teachers' Training in Yogyakarta, she left her husband and two daughters in February last year only two weeks before Idul Fitri, to get her Master's degree.
Last year she joined around 300 Moslems, mostly Indonesians, for a prayer at Monash University in Melbourne.
"On the following day, we went to the Indonesian consulate. Not only Moslems, but every Indonesian was invited. We had fun and good traditional Indonesian cakes," she said.
This Idul Fitri holiday, she will surely have more fun and more Indonesian food because she is now in Yogyakarta.
"From late in November to early in March, I don't have any classes. This is a long holiday and I have made every effort to go home to celebrate Idul Fitri with my family," she said.
Ari Nafril, a lecturer at Sriwijaya University in Palembang, South Sumatra, has been in Saarbruecken, Germany for four years doing post-graduate studies in environmental toxicology. His wife and children joined him two years ago.
"Before my wife and children came over, whenever my friends visited me during Idul Fitri, I served them soda and instant noodles. After my wife came, they could enjoy pempek (traditional Palembang snack) and tea or coffee," he said.
There are only 10 Indonesian Moslems in Saarbruecken, some of them still single.
Even though his wife and children are around, Nafril cannot ease his longing for his mother. He doesn't mind spending a lot of money on long conversations with his 67-year-old mother.
"If you print my Idul Fitri story, please send a copy to my mother in Palembang," he said.