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)