Residents gear up for celebration of Chinese New Year

Residents gear up for celebration of Chinese New Year

JAKARTA (JP): City residents continued preparing for the
upcoming Chinese New Year (Imlek) celebration on Sunday, amid
calls to celebrate the event in a modest fashion.

A festive atmosphere was observed at several spots in the
city's Chinatown in Glodok, West Jakarta, and at shopping malls
and hotels, while Chinese temples in the same area were seen
being cleaned.

Glodok area was heavily congested with traffic and people due
to a Chinese New Year bazaar on Jl. Asemka, hosted by the West
Jakarta mayoralty. The bazaar included performances of the
traditional Chinese Barongsai lion dance.

Other spots in Glodok, like Jl. Pancoran and the narrow street
of Jl. Petak Sembilan, which are the home of sidewalk vendors
selling Chinese ornaments and staple foods, were flocked by so
many people shopping for celebration necessities that visitors
found it difficult to pass down them.

The busiest street was Jl. Asemka, as people came to witness
the lion dance performances.

Barongsai group leader Thian Lie Thong said the bazaar, which
was opened by West Jakarta Mayor Sarimun Hadisputra, sold special
food stuffs for the new year, and would be open until Feb. 4.

"The peak of the celebration will be on Saturday night at
Fatahillah square (in front of the Jakarta Historical Museum),
and will feature a Barongsai dance, a bazaar and other
traditional Betawi (native Jakartan) musical performances like
Tanjidor and Gambang Kromong," he said.

Thian was aware of calls to celebrate the festivity modestly,
but said "the bazaar is held by the mayoralty, so I think they
can guarantee the security."

Earlier, several Chinese Indonesians in the city vowed to
celebrate the Year of the Golden Dragon in a modest mood due to
escalating political tension in several parts of the country.

The call, which was also made by the Association of Chinese
Clans, was to anticipate the presence of intruders at gatherings
and the possible spread of religious conflict in the capital.

Chinese Indonesians are often the target of mob anger in the
country, like during the recent riots in Mataram, the capital of
West Nusa Tenggara.

But Thian, 52, said conflicts could be avoided if the
celebration also included indigenous people, like those in the
past.

Thian, whose family roots are in Glodok, said that in the past
Chinese New Year celebrations were like a people's festival.
Betawi (native Jakartan) people joined the celebration by staging
their own traditional dances, music and food bazaars.

"I hope that this years celebration can reunite indigenous and
non-Indigenous Indonesian like in the past," he said.

Similar comments were aired by Trifena Dewi Sjafudin, banquet
and public relations manager at the Omni Batavia hotel in West
Jakarta.

"The Chinese New Year should be a tourist selling point for
the city," she said.

She said the hotel would not hold a big celebration, despite
it being decorated with Chinese ornaments and serving Chinese
food.

A special celebration will be held at Horison hotel, which is
located inside the Ancol Dreamland in North Jakarta. Chinese tea
and Chinese New Year cake will be distributed to hotel tenants or
restaurant guests on Feb. 5.

The hotel said in a statement on Sunday they would also offer
a special room rate during the celebrations which would include,
among other things, breakfast, entrance to Ancol Dreamland and
tickets to several amusement parks at Ancol, including Dunia
Fantasi and SeaWorld.

Chinese New Year festivities were also observed at several
shopping centers, including Plaza Senayan in South Jakarta and
Mal Kelapa Gading in North Jakarta, where special stalls offering
Chinese ornaments were erected.

Activities at Chinese temples also increased as larger numbers
of people prayed compared to normal days.

Dozens of people were seen praying at Ancol temple despite it
being located in a remote area. Temple official Suryanto said the
number of worshipers had reached about 100 during the day,
compared to only a dozen on normal days.

Giant red candles, whose price can reach Rp 4 million a pair,
could be seen in the temple's courtyard.

At Wihara Dharma Bhakti temple in the Petak Sembilan area
statues of Chinese deities were being washed.

"We do not have any special preparations for the celebration,"
temple official Nio Siu Siu said.

An expert on Chinese architectural styles, Edison Yulius, said
Chinese temples usually wash all statues of deities one week
before the new year, the time when the deities "go to God to
report all the deeds of humankind".

"The statues are forbidden to be cleaned when the deities are
still inside. That's why they wash them when the statues are
'empty'. The deities will return on the fourth day after the new
year," he said. (ind)