Holidays abound

Apparently we've moved to the land of holidays. It seems like there's a holiday every other week (that's not actually the case, but it does seem that way). We've had 3 holidays in the last 2 weeks: Jakarta mayoral elections, a religious holiday, and Independence Day.

The mayoral elections went smoothly, as far as I have heard. There were demonstrations and marches in the weeks leading up to the election, but nothing too contentious. The streets were quiet the day of and nobody expected there to be any problems. We saw a couple polling places in our neighborhood, so I have the impression that there were numerous polling stations and they were easy to get to. And notice - it was a holiday! People could go and vote and many did not have to take off of work to do it. What a concept! I think it is ridiculous that we don't do the same in the US, not even for the presidential election. I'm sure our economy can survive if we add another holiday every 4 years. So the winner of the election, with an easy win I believe, was the former vice-president of Indonesia. J and I thought this would be a step down, but evidently not. Maybe the vice-president of Indonesia has even less power than the vp of the US, and governing Jakarta is like governing New York City.

The religious holiday was a Muslim holiday. Most of them are; however, there is also a Hindu holiday and a Christian holiday. There is a holiday for the new year, and a holiday for the Chinese new year. Indonesia is predominantly Muslim, but it seems pretty smart and progressive to honor other religions and other traditions. We hear the call to prayer a few times per day and there are many mosques, but otherwise it isn't readily apparent that just about everyone is Muslim. I also expected that I would always need to wear long pants or skirts and shirts with sleeves on them, but this does not seem to be necessary here in Jakarta. Matter of fact, we have been shocked at the tiny short shorts we have seen women wearing in the shopping malls. We'll see how things change when Ramadan starts in a few weeks, but for the most part the fact that this is a predominantly Muslim society isn't prominent in every day life. I imagine outside of Jakarta this would be different...

Last Friday was Independence Day. My understanding is that celebrations are very neighborhood centered. There were decorations everywhere (red and white flags) and evidently there was a parade and games in the kampung (neighborhood) near our house. We didn't know what time the festivities took place (nobody seemed to know the day before) so unfortunately we didn't observe the celebrations. From what I heard though the festivities mostly consisted of games for older kids and adults, and it doesn't sound like we missed out on a lot. But it would have been interesting to see. It made me miss our own Independence Day. I'm sure we would have taken C to a parade and had a bbq with our friends. That would have been nice...

Jakarta becomes noticeably quieter on these long weekends. Many of our friends get out of Jakarta, and many Indonesians as well. The roads are less congested and it is wonderfully quieter in the city. Once LC is older we'll start to get out of Jakarta for these long weekends as well, although it's also nice and relaxing to stay here when the whole city vamps down a notch.