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Rainy Jakarta celebrates festive New Year
Don’t rain on my parade: Residents gather at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta to celebrate New Year’s Eve on Monday evening
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on’t rain on my parade: Residents gather at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta to celebrate New Year’s Eve on Monday evening.(JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
As rain poured down all night in Jakarta, hundreds of thousands gathered on the capital city’s main thoroughfares on Monday evening to celebrate New Year’s Eve with prayers, a mass wedding, fireworks and hopes for a better year.
The Jakarta administration erected four entertainment stages along Jl. Sudirman in South Jakarta and Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta with music and dance performances that entertained residents from 7 p.m. to midnight. Prominent dangdut musician Rhoma Irama rocked the stage at the National Monument (Monas) to thousands of Jakartans.
The administration closed the main roads for a car-free night, with empty roads seen at the west gate of the Monas complex on Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat, the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle on Jl. MH. Thamrin, Jl. Sudirman and Dukuh Atas in Central Jakarta. Traffic was rerouted on the affected thoroughfares.
As planned, the city administration also held a mass wedding for 557 couples who tied the knot at parking facility Thamrin 10 on Jl. MH Thamrin on Monday evening. The mass wedding, the second of its kind, not only accommodated new couples, but also the 336 pairs that were previously unofficially married under an Islamic law called nikah siri.
The mass wedding was free for Muslim Jakartans, providing a solution for those who could not afford to pay exorbitant wedding fees or hold lavish ceremonies. The newly wedded pairs instead received Rp 500,000 (US$35) from the administration.
Hamdani Lubis, 56, voiced his relief after his last child, Rizka Fadhilah Hamid, 19, married her boyfriend, Jimmy A. L., 19 — making them the youngest wedded couple at the event.
“We intended to turn the mass wedding into an annual celebration ever since we first held it last year and, thank God, it could be held again this year,” Jakarta Governor Anies said on the sidelines of the event.
He added that the New Year’s Eve celebrations in Jakarta were held in a “humbler way” this year to empathize with disaster victims and said that the city would not see fireworks displays. However, fireworks were set off throughout the night, including during mass prayers that he led to honor the disaster victims.
The evening celebrations also benefited street vendors. Near the parking facility, the city provided small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with 70 tents that represented the city’s 44 subdistricts.
However, the rain hampered good business, said Ichsan, a founder of Bir Pletok Peci Merah, an SME listed under the city’s OK OCE entrepreneurship training program that sells an herbs and spice-based traditional beverage of the Betawi, an ethnic group native to Jakarta.
“We cannot sell many [bottles] as it has been raining. We managed to sell more [on New Year’s Eve] last year,” he told The Jakarta Post.
He also expressed hope that the administration would be more proactive in the preservation of Betawi culture, especially its cuisine, next year. “It is difficult to preserve Betawi culture,” he said.
Despite the rain, people still swarmed the main stage at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle as the celebration reached its peak at midnight.
Muhanani, 41, a Jatinegara, East Jakarta resident who came to the area to celebrate New Year’s Eve with her family, hoped for a peaceful end to the year.
“I hope for an orderly, peaceful and just Jakarta. I don’t want to see any commotion,” she said.
Nani Suryani, 23, a Jati Bunder, Central Jakarta resident who came with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, expressed a similar sentiment.
“I hope Jakarta will be better. Hopefully during the presidential election next year, it will be better, improved and safe,” she said.
Celebrations were also held elsewhere in the city, including at mosques. Istiqlal Mosque in Central Jakarta, for example, held a series of events from Monday evening until dawn, such as muhasabah (self-evaluation) and itikaf (seclusion in a mosque) to ring in the new year.
“This is my first time spending New Year’s Eve at a mosque [...] It helps remind me not to be too indulged in worldly pleasures,” one of the participants, Alma Pratama, 21, said. (ars)
