In Indonesia, Chinese New Year is known as 'Imlek' and has become a popular holiday celebrated by all Indonesians, not just the estimated 2.8 million Indonesians of Chinese descent ('Tionghua').
Previously, under President Soeharto’s New Order regime, Chinese New Year was banned from being celebrated openly. All ethnic Chinese traditional and religious celebrations including the Chinese New Year, Cap Go Meh are prohibited from being celebrated openly. Barongsai and liang liong are also prohibited from being displayed in public. The New Order regime had an anti-communist stance and anything that had to do with China and its culture was considered dangerous to the nationhood.
In 2001, President Abdurrahman Wahid made Chinese New Year an optional holiday. He also lifted a ban on the display of Chinese characters and the import of Chinese publications. In 2002, President Megawati Soekarnoputri declared Chinese New Year as a national holiday starting from 2003. Since then, Chinese New Year can be commemorated and celebrated freely by Chinese citizens.
Tradition of Imlek
Imlek is the time for family gathering and wishes for a good health and prosperity. The Indonesian Chinese has a tradition to have a family dinner on the new year eve. Some continues the festive by praying in the temple. On the new year day, the younger family member visit their parents and elder to greet them and children usually get 'hongbao', a red envelope filled with money. It represents the blessings from the elder to the young.
Usually people wear new clothes on the new year day and they prefer red ones. They believe red will keep them away from bad spirits and bad luck. They buy new clothes not only for their children but also for their parents and elders. Hence, nowadays the shopping malls take this opportunity to arrange midnight sale.
The special food that only made and sold during Imlek is basket cakes, in Sunda we called it dodol keranjang or dodol China, or Nian Gao in mandarin. We called it basket cakes because we use a bamboo basket as a mold for the dough. The main ingredients of this cake are sticky rice and sugar, but now it has various flavors such as vanilla, chocolate and pandanus (the extract of pandanus leaves provides the green color and smells good). We can eat it as is, but many people prefers to steam it with shredded coconut or fries with beaten egg.
The special performance during Chinese New Year is lion dance and dragon dance. The Chinese believe these animals bring prosperity and push away the bad luck. The Dragon is carried by many people, since it has long body. Hence, it usually performs on the street.
Chinese New Year Animal Signs
Each year in the Chinese calendar is represented by one of twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac. 2021 will be the year of the Ox. The rat is seen as patient, kind, stubborn, and conservative in China. The Ox is second of the 12 animal signs of the Chinese zodiac.
The zodiac also cycles through five inanimate elements: wood, fire, earth, metal, water; so 2021 will specifically be the Year of the Metal Ox.
This year's Chinese New Year celebration falls on 12 February 2021 (Today). Happy Chinese New Year wish everyone good luck, good health and prosperity
