Yogyakarta celebrates official anniversary

Sri Wahyuni, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta

If you visit the ancient city of Yogyakarta this week, you will be greeted by colorful decorations displayed across the city.

By day, the city is brightened up with colorful banners, posters and signboards, while at night, it is adorned with decorative, colored lights.

No wonder, because for the first time in its history, Yogyakarta municipal administration will officially celebrate the city's 247th anniversary.

The celebrations will peak on Oct. 7, when the city will stage a fireworks party and theatrical performance by high school students at Mandala Krida Stadium.

About 6,000 people from some 60 different groups, including the traditional Javanese Yogyakarta Palace guards, are expected to join the event, titled Malam Pekan Gemilang Jogja (The Night of Jogja's Splendor Week).

Everyone is also invited to join the celebration free of charge but is required to wear something traditionally Javanese as a passport to the event.

Yogyakarta Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, who is also governor of Yogyakarta province, is scheduled to arrive at the celebration in the palace's sacred horse-drawn cart, Kangjeng Kyai Jongwiyat, and will officially announce Oct. 7 as the birth date of the city.

"We have also decided to include it (the date) into the Yogyakarta bylaws," said Yogyakarta Mayor Herry Zudianto, adding that the date had been identified after a scientific study by a team of experts.

The date was taken from the time that Sultan Hamengkubuwono I officially entered the newly built palace on Sura 13, 1682, (according to the Javanese calendar), or Oct. 7, 1756 in the Gregorian calendar, to start ruling the newly established kingdom of Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post in an interview, Herry also underlined the significance of celebrating the city's anniversary, saying that it could help citizens feel a sense of their history and the existence of the city itself.

"I do hope this will be a party for all the people of Yogyakarta. I want to make them aware that the city belongs to all of us and that we all share a responsibility in making it a better place for everyone," said Herry, adding that the city administration would declare the celebration one of its official, annual events.

Herry also expressed the hope that the event would be included in the tourist calendar of events, as the city administration had prepared a number of supporting activities and programs for the whole week ahead of the celebrations, as an additional attraction.

Among these are an Old Jogja Exhibition, a Penjor (decorative lamp) and Lampion (paper lantern) Festival, ketoprak (collaborative performances of traditional drama), shadow puppet shows, city carnival, traditional costume festival, traditional food festival, dolanan anak (children's song and play festival), kebaya (traditional Javanese blouse) fashion show and art performances.

The other event in the run-up to the anniversary was the Dimas Diajeng Competition, which commenced on Sept. 29 to elect the city's tourism envoy. Finalists were taken into a city carnival last Friday on a decorated, traditional horse-drawn carriage known locally as an andong.

There is also the Jogja Great Sale, during which the celebration's organizing committee has invited the city's stores, shops, hotels and restaurants to offer special prices and discounts of up to 70 percent on their normal prices. No less than 4,150 outlets are taking part in the program.

"This is apart from some domestic airlines that are also offering discounts of up to 40 percent on flights to Yogyakarta," Coordinator of the Jogja Great Sale program Stef B. Indarto told the Post.

He said the airlines were Garuda Indonesia, Bouraq, Merpati Nusantara and Pelita Air Service. They are offering ticket discounts of 20 percent to 40 percent on flights to Yogyakarta during the Jogja Great Sale until Oct. 19.

"The main objective of the program is to make Yogyakarta the country's number one shopping tourist destination," Stef explained.

According to Herry, such a goal was also in line with the city administration's plan to make the municipality a city of trade and services, with tourism and tourism-related businesses as the main sector.

"We want to focus more on tourism based on Javanese culture, because it is still strongly rooted in the community, and we should maintain it," said Herry, adding that the city administration had modified the province's motto, "Jogja never ends" into "Jogja, the never-ending Java."

"Hopefully it will be more marketable for Yogyakarta City," Hery said.

In order to make the program a success, therefore, Herry also said that minimum security standards could no longer just be an aim, but had to be seriously implemented by the management of public places, including hotels, restaurants and shopping centers, especially with regard to recent bomb attacks and threats.

"If possible, we should create a legal umbrella for them, for example by integrating the requirements (for security procedures) into the issuance of business licenses," he said.