Merah
Putih: Independence Day
Every country has its own independence day like America, its on July 4th.
For us Indonesians, we celebrate Independence day on August 17th. On this day, we
pay respects to our past heroes who fought for Indonesia and pay respects to
our flag, Sang Saka Merah Putih as we
call it. We pay respects in a “flag raising ceremony”.
In a flag raising ceremony, we have officers, like ceremony master and
ceremony leaders. We follow certain steps or procedures in this ceremony. We
are required to sing our national anthem, pay homage to our flag and others.
After that, we play traditional games! We have Lomba Makan Krupuk, Memasukan Pensil dalam Botol and Tarik Tambang. Before, on 1945, saying Merdeka which means independence was
actually forbidden and the consequences was shot on spot. So, they kept the fun
by having these games mentioned.
We follow the order of the
ceremony from the Japanese, because back than, the Japanese people colonieses
Indonesia for 3 years, they have helped us in many things; transportations and
other stuffs, but we also suffered the most with their rodi which means us Indonesians were forced to work without pay and
many died, especially in rodi train
projects.
During the past, Indonesia has
had many events which eventually led to Indonesia’s independence. Including the
famous event Peristiwa Rengasengklok. Its
usually taking quite a long time for the ceremony and is usually happening in
the morning.
That seems to be it then. Thank
you and make sure to visit us more!
