TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Safe and sound ‘mudik’ in the new normal era
The concern is whether villages are well prepared to receive the influx of so many urban people, especially if rural people are not yet fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Change Size
Passengers, preparing to go on 'mudik' (exodus) – an Idul Fitri tradition where people go back to their hometown to celebrate the Islamic holy day relatives, carry their belonging to a bus in Pakupatan Bus Terminal in Serang, Banten on April 22. (Antara/Asep Fathulrahman)
N
o one thought the tradition of mudik (exodus) – the returning to one’s hometown, usually to spend Idul Fitri or Lebaran with the family that has characterized Indonesian society since the colonial era – would suddenly stop in 2020 and 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Luckily, this year the pandemic is starting to subside, prompting the government to allow the annual Idul Fitri exodus to resume this year. It is important therefore to observe the mudik phenomenon in this “new normal” era, in particular those who are traveling and the situation in their hometowns.
Although urban people have their own udik (roots), they cannot return home at any time they wish during the pandemic. Therefore, even if the pandemic is easing, the door to rural areas cannot just open or close at any time. This door seems to have a schedule when to open and accept the urbanites as honorable guests. Those who arrive outside of the normal schedule could be seen as uninvited visitors.
A person has to have a valid reason why when returning to their hometown, such as to visit ailing parents, take the kids for a holiday, for a family event or reunion or to celebrate Idul Fitri.
Of course, the parents’ door in the home village is always open for their children and grandchildren. But still, they need some reasons for the unscheduled homecoming, or else neighbors will ask, if not gossip around.
In the absence of clarity or lack thereof about the reasons for an unscheduled mudik, both parents and their visiting children feel uncomfortable. It is quite common for surrounding neighbors to speculate that the children came back to their home village because they could not survive in the city.
Fortunately, in the lexicon of Indonesians, especially for the Javanese and Sundanese, there is a term rural people are familiar with — tetirah, which in general means to rest one’s mind or to seek mental relaxation.
