Christmas in Indonesia, locally known asNatal from thePortuguese word forChristmas, is celebrated with various traditions throughoutthe country.
Despite the majority of Indonesians beingMuslims, Christmas is still widely celebrated in Indonesia.[1] Many Indonesians who are notChristian celebrate Christmas as a secular holiday.[2]
Indonesia has approximately 28 millionChristians, of which about 70% areProtestant and 30% areRoman Catholics.[3]
In regions with a Christian majority, both Protestants and Catholics celebrate Christmas with ceremonies and local food.[4] In big cities, shopping centers are decorated with plasticChristmas trees andSanta Claus figures (locally known asSinterklas, derived from theDutch wordSinterklaas). Many local television channels broadcast Christmas musical concerts, and the government organizes the annual national Christmas celebration. In addition to traditional foods, there are also unique Christmas Day foods, such as traditional desserts likenastar (pineapple tart) andkastengel (from Dutch wordkaasstengel), or 'putri salju'.[5]
InNorth Jakarta, Indonesians of Portuguese descent live mainly inKampung Tugu. After ChristmasMass, Christians in Kampung Tugu will visit the cemetery next to their local church and start the rabo-rabo tradition.
The rabo-rabo tradition consists of playingKroncong music and dancing together around the village area. Locals will sing and visit each other's relatives. Relatives who are visited must later join the game until a chain of players forms on the streets. The visits will continue until they arrive at the last house in the area.[7]
In thePapua region, after Christmas Mass, a ritual cooking of pork for feasting is held using aBarapen (grilling stone). The pork meat is cooked in between hot stones that are heated using wood. Instead of using matches, Papuan people scrape the wood continuously to produce heat to set it on fire. In order to prepare theBarapen, Papuan men dig a hole to put the hot stones in. At the same time, Papuan women prepare vegetables such assweet potato,water spinach,fern,cassava,spinach, andpapaya. Hot stones are stacked on the base of the hole and the pork and vegetables are put into the hole and covered with another layer of hot stones. The pork is cooked in the hole for half a day. The tradition ofBarapen is an expression of gratitude, togetherness, sharing, and love, characterised by eating pork together.[8][9]
InNegeri Naku,South Leitimur,Ambon, there is a ceremony calledcuci negeri (cleaning the nation). This ceremony symbolises the purification and liberation ofsins from the local people and their environment. Thecuci negeri starts with a gathering in the communityfunction hall for each clan to hold their own traditional ritual. From there, theAmbonese walk to the traditional function hall. They sing and dance to the sounds of the tifa (traditional music instrument). Along the way, the women bring some offerings likebetel,areca nut, and traditional drink calledsopi.[10] During Christmas Eve celebrations in theMaluku, church bells will ring and ships will sound their sirens.[9][11]
In theYogyakarta area, Christmas celebrations are marked by awayang kulit adaptation of theNativity scene. Church Mass is led by thepriest who wears traditional Javanese attire (wearingbeskap andblankon) and gives sermon inlocal language. Similar toEid (lebaran) andChinese New Year (imlek), during Christmas Day, people visit families and relatives, with children often receiving money in an envelope from elders.[9][11]
The pre-Christmas celebrations inManado start from 1 December when the regional government officers go on the "Christmas Safari" and observe the Mass in a different district every day. As part of tradition, some residents of Manado join acarnival or visit and clean their families' graves. The series of Christmas celebrations will finish in the first week of January with a festival calledkunci taon. During this festival, there is a carnival across the region featuring unique costumes.[9][11]
Most Christian villages inBali are located on the southern side of the island. In those villages, road decorations calledpenjor (made from yellow coconut leaves) are made for Christmas, which symbolise theAnantaboga dragon. The Christmas celebration draws influence fromBalinese Hinduism.[12]
In Bali, the Christmas tree is made from chicken feathers. This unique tree has been imported to some European countries.[13]
Torajan people celebrate Christmas by having a cultural festival calledLovely December. This festival consists of dancing, a culinary celebration, cultural carnival, bamboo music performance and handicraft exhibition. The festival is ended by fireworks andLettoan procession which is held on 26 December.[9][14]Lettoan is a ritual of having pig parade with cultural symbols that represent three dimensions of human life. Those three symbols are:
For theBatak inNorth Sumatra, Christmas Day is always followed by sacrificing an animal. The local people will save money for months beforehand and buy this animal together. This tradition is calledmarbinda and shows togetherness and mutual cooperation. The sacrificed animal can be a pig, a buffalo, or an ox, and the meat will be shared to all the people that participate in the purchasing of the animal.[9][16]
Every year, theMinistry of Religious Affairs holds theNational Christmas Celebration of the Republic of Indonesia. The program started in 1993 after a suggestion fromTiopan Bernhard Silalahi, who was Minister of Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform in theSixth Development Cabinet, who hasProtestant background, to the thenPresident of IndonesiaSuharto.[17] Since that time, the National Christmas Celebration has been held almost every year (and was held as a virtual event due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020–21). Exceptions were in 2004, which was canceled as a condolence for the victims of the2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, in 2018, which was canceled as a condolence for the victims of the2018 Sunda Strait tsunami, and in 2022, which was also planned to be cancelled before being delayed at the last minute as a condolence for the victims of the2022 West Java earthquake.[18]
Until 2013, National Christmas Celebration was held inJakarta and the most common used venue wasJakarta Convention Center.[17] Since 2014, the tradition was changed by the then newly electedPresident of IndonesiaJoko Widodo.[19] This is the list of National Christmas Celebration hosts since 2014:
| Year | Host | Province | Date | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Jayapura City[20] | Papua | 27 December 2014 | For the first time National Christmas Celebration was held outsideJakarta Special Capital Region |
| 2015 | Kupang City[21] | East Nusa Tenggara | 28 December 2015 | |
| 2016 | Minahasa Regency[22] | North Sulawesi | 27 December 2016 | For the first time National Christmas Celebration was held in aregency |
| 2017 | Pontianak City[23] | West Kalimantan | 28 December 2017 | For the first time outside thecapital of Indonesia, National Christmas Celebration will be held in a province and a city whose majority of population are not Christians |
| 2019 | Bogor[24] | West Java | 27 December 2019 | |
| 2023 | Surabaya | East Java | 27 December 2023 |
Media related toChristmas in Indonesia at Wikimedia Commons
