Festival Bulan Purnama dan HUT Sanggar Agung
SURABAYA - Festival Bulan Purnama tadi malam digelar di Pantai Ria Kenjeran. Festival yang sekaligus memeriahkan ulang tahun Sanggar Agung yang ke-29 itu diikuti sekitar 20 ribu umat Tri Dharma.
Acara tadi malam terasa istimewa karena untuk kali pertama, diarak patung Kim Sim Dewi Kwan Im dan Dewa Kwan Kong ke. Dari Sanggar agung, kedua patung itu diarak ke Thien Tan (tempat persembahyangan) yang terletak di sebelah selatan Sanggar Agung.
Para pengarak mengenakan kostum tradisional Tiongkok zaman Dinasti Ching. Berjalan bersama arak-arakan Kim Sim, sekitar dua ribu umat Tri Dharma membawa lentera berbentuk teratai berbahan kertas yang kemudian dilarung ke laut setelah disembahyangi.
Ribuan umat itu, berjalan sejauh 2 km melewati Kya Kya Pantai Ria Kenjeran. Acara sembahyang itu dilakukan dengan membakar patung 12 shio dari kertas.
Uniknya, terdapat juga sejumlah umat Hindu dari Pura Jala Sidi Amerta, Juanda. Sebanyak 30 umat Hindu menenteng Gelanjur (alat musik berbentuk gong).
Larung 2.500-3.000 lentera itu dilakukan pukul 21.00. Umat mengiringi pelarungan sambil membawa lampion dan bunga sedap malam. Lampion melambangkan penerangan dan bunga sedap malam merupakan lambang dari kehidupan. “Panitia menyediakan 2. 500 teratai untuk dilarung,” kata Rudy R., dari friendship event organizer.
Panitia, kata Rudy, juga menyediakan paket doa berisi teratai dan tiga lembar kertas doa. Dalam tiga kertas itu dituliskan nama jemaat yang berdoa. Masing-masing kertas doa itu dilarung, dibakar bersama shio, dan dimasukkan ke lampion yang ada di langit-langit Sanggar Agung. “Ketika angin bertiup ke arah lampion, maka angin akan ikut mendoakan mereka,” jelas Rudy.
Soetiadji Yudho, pengurus Yayasan Sanggar Agung berharap, dengan diadakannya perayaan ulang tahun Sanggar Agung dan Festival Bulan Purnama secara meriah tahun ini, umat akan lebih menghayati momen penting bagi warga Tionghoa tersebut. (nar/zul)
Source: Jawa Pos Online
September 26th, 2007
Surabaya, Indonesia - Millions of Muslims across Indonesia flocked to traditional markets and department stores earlier this month to snap up special foods, gifts and clothing ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. But in the east Java city of Surabaya, hundreds of people, mostly men, were flocking to the city’s famous Dolly red-light district to get in one final liaison before the holy month temporarily shut it down.
Dolly is one of the largest red-light districts in South-East Asia with more than 2,000 sex workers in hundreds of brothels in the heart of Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city. It is named after the district’s first madam, a Dutchwoman from Indonesia’s colonial period, and its prominence rose with the growth of Surabaya’s port, one of the country’s largest. But by local law, Dolly closes up shop during Ramadan, and in the run-up to the shutdown, business was so frantic that people were still talking about it two weeks later. “The week before Ramadan is the craziest time of the year because many customers come to enjoy sin for the last time,” Mira Dewi, 22, a sex worker at the House of Twin Queens brothel, said, giggling. Ramadan marks the time when the Koran was first revealed to the Prophet Mohammed. During the holy month, Muslims abstain from food, drink and sex from sunrise to sunset. The daily fast is broken by prayers and festive meals. Muslims are encouraged to become more spiritual during this period by praying more, reciting the Koran and giving alms to the poor - while at the same time abstaining from sex out of wedlock. So naturally, the days leading up to Ramadan “are the best time to get as many customers as we can get, so we can save money for the coming month,” Mira Dewi said in a careful tone. “We lose an entire month’s income during Ramadan.”“Sure, we are disappointed about it because there’s not much else we can do for living, but we can’t protest,” Mira Dewi said. The economic shutdown is a tough blow to the working girls, most of whom are from poor rural villages around Java, and also affects local pedicab drivers, restaurants, shop owners and many others who make a living in and around the red-light district. For Mira Dewi, it presents another problem: continuing to hide her profession from her family. “I send money home to my mother, so I don’t know what to tell her,” she said. At least she and other workers in the Dolly district can count on a surge in business in the days after Ramadan ends. Prostitution is illegal in Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population in the world with about 190 million faithful, but Dolly for many years has been the exception to the rule. Islamic organizations, big and small, consistently oppose prostitution, especially during Ramadan, so brothel owners agreed to the one-month shutdown. “It’s a regulation from Surabaya’s mayor to close down prostitution and other amusement areas such as pubs and bars during Ramadan,” said Soeharjo, a provincial spokesman who like many Indonesians goes by one name. “We have to respect the holy month. “Dolly is a legal prostitution area based on the mayor’s decree,” he said. “The place pays huge taxes to us, and although the closing during Ramadan is indeed a loss, we have to see it based on a moral aspect.”Indonesia has a secular government and society and has large minority religious groups, including Christians, Buddhist and Hindus, but some conservative Muslim-based political parties and fundamentalist Islamic groups have at times called for legislation based on Islamic law, or sharia, in an attempt to impose their version of morality on the country. The country in recent years has witnessed forced closures and attacks on nightclubs by mobs linking themselves to Islamic organizations, such as the Islamic Defenders Front. Dolly has never experienced such attacks in East Java, which is the base of Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim organization in the country, which promotes mainstream Islam. Although the vast majority of Surabaya residents support closing Dolly for Ramadan, some openly expressed their disappointment. “I really think it’s ridiculous and a true form of government hypocrisy,” said Otto Nasir, 45, who works for an insurance company in Surabaya. “Prostitution is a sin whether it’s during Ramadan or not. If they want to close it, they should close it for good.”
Source: http://www.earthtimes.org/
September 26th, 2007