Offerings & Celebrations

Religion is part of the fabric of Indonesian life, and with this comes extravagant, colourful celebrations. For Muslims in Java, the beat of an enormous drum heralds the evening breaking of Ramadan fast, calling people to food stalls for sticky rice cakes and sweet ices. For Balinese Hindus, the Galungan ceremony of good triumphing over evil is marked with bamboo poles outside every house beautifully decorated with flowers, fruits and coloured cakes, and banquets including sate and lawar (a spiced meat and coconut salad stained red with blood). For the Christian communities in Papua, the Christmas mass is followed by a village feast of pork, water spinach, ferns and sweet potatoes roasted in a fire pit between layers of hot stones.