Still in the month of Ramadhan, now we’re gonna enter the third week, only a week left to the victory day of Eid Fitri. For the people of Indonesia, this moment is really exciting, because all the prayers and their activities to be a better person, like fasting for example, finally will be paid off.
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This is usual activity during a year, but also very special, especially for the Muslims. But the moments during Ramadhan can be a bit surprising for people who are both new to Indonesia, and also the Ramadhan month. With that, we want to bring the things you must know when in Indonesia during Ramadhan, what are the things you can expect. So let’s start with the first one.
1 – Some restaurants or any other places to eat are closed during the Day
The first one on the list of things you must know when in Indonesia during Ramadhan is the fact that some restaurants or another place to eat called Warung are usually closed during the day of Ramadhan month. This may make some tourists scratch their heads in confusion, because they can’t be able to eat.
Usually, during the day, they are closing their business in order to respect the Muslims in the area. So they can be less distracting, based on their opinion. This condition sometimes makes the Non-Muslim people a bit hard to find foods. The alternative is to look for the fast food restaurants, which usually open 24 hours.
2 – Attractions will be empty or having less visitors than usual
You know, not only restaurants that decide to close, but also the attractions as well. Even though not all of them do it obviously, but even the biggest ones are also doing it. This is also related to fasting in the month of Ramadhan. Places that having pools like water boom, are usually emptier or even closed in order to save their budget, because no one’s coming in.
However, even though it looks really simple, so simple, but fasting Muslims usually not allowed to swim. Why? Because when swimming, you can have probability to take some water in, which can break the fast completely because it’s just the same as eating. That’s why many of them decide to not swim at all in order to prevent that.
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3 – Hotels will full during Eid Fitri day
As mentioned above, restaurants are closed, the attractions are closed, so is there any kind of place which also closing when Ramadhan comes? What about hotels? Hotels are believed to be comfortable places where you can relax and spoiled by all the interesting room and hotel features.
During Ramadhan, most hotels are in their usual condition, of course, based on their starts. It’s getting crowded in five-star hotels. But the thing is when Eid Fitri day is close, many hotels are filled. Foreign tourists who don’t have any clear thought about this can hard to find a room because of this condition.
4 – Restaurants will be more crowded than usual (during breaking fast time)
If during the day, most restaurants will decide to close their shops, but the condition can be different, way different during the dusk, or the breaking fast time. At the moment like this, many people, many Muslims are really hungry to eat. Taking this chance, many shops open their business to get as many customers as possible.
With this condition, most restaurants that were closed before will be filled faster than you think. Like fifteen minutes after Adzan for Maghrib, a restaurant will already full. Many people would start to come in, hoping to get the best foods to break their fast. It can be a hard thing to find a quiet restaurant at that time.
5 – Malls will be even crowder and merrier
Just like restaurants during breaking fast time, most malls are also starting to get crowder and crowder. But the thing with malls is, not only during the night but also during the day as well. And the reason why those people come in may vary. They can enter the mall in order to get colder tempereature because it’s really hot outside.
And the others may say they want to window shopping all day waiting for the breaking fast time. Some people are also spending their time in the malls differently, for sure. They can play games at Time Zone or other entertainment providers to make the time goes faster, or they can just shopping some stuff to make a dish for breaking fast.
6 – Ramadhan Decorations are everywhere
People in Indonesia also like to celebrate things. Thanks to their creative mind, to celebrate the month of Ramadhan, they will do many decorations on basically everything. For example, villages will look more beautiful with this kind of lamp decorations that will lit their village during the day.
Also, another one in things you must know when in Indonesia during Ramadhan is the decoration you can find in public places such as parks or malls. Usually, when the Eid Fitri day is near, they will decorate the malls with anything related to Eid Fitri, like Ketupat, Mosque, or the star and eclipse symbol of Islam.
7 – Mosques will be crowder than usual
As mentioned in our previous article, many people in Indonesia would like to spend their time in this special month of Ramadhan. Inside, they can do religious activities to make them closer to God and repent for their sins, like reciting the Holy Quran, doing five-times prayer a day, and the others.
10 days before Eid Fitri, some people would decide to spend their days in a mosque. This activity is called as I’tikaf. They can spend their time in the mosque while doing all those activities. Even some decide to sleep in the mosque, to get more merits and be closer to Allah. With doing I’tikaf, they can also get the goodness of Lailatul Qadar.
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8 – Mosques will share Takjils
Aside from crowded because of the religious activities related to the month of Ramadhan, some mosques, or in fact all of them, also share Takjils to all people who are coming to the mosque. Before praying, they will give some snacks and drinks in order to break the fast, and after that, they will give some dishes to eat after Maghrib prayer.
You know, if you give the other people who are fasting, you will also get the merits of fasting all day as well.
9 – There are people giving out free Takjils as well
Aside from the mosques, people who are fasting and not fasting are also giving the free takjils sometimes to the people who are passing by. Usually, they are standing by the road, so the people, especially riders can get their free Takjils easily. Not only for the ones using motorcycles, car drivers can also get an opportunity as well.
Usually, people who are doing this are from a community, a company, or even restaurant workers.
10 – During breaking fast time, traffic jams are everywhere
Indonesia is always known as a very tight country. Even though the whole area is clearly really wide, but the traffic jams are still becoming common things in Indonesia, especially big cities. However, things can get worsen during breaking fast time, where most people are going off work and look for Takjils.
Sometimes, because how hard it is to ride in such a traffic jam, most people will break their fast with mineral water only.
11 – Parcels are displayed
One thing in things you must know when in Indonesia during Ramadhan is Parcels. Usually, when the Eid Fitri day is only less than a week, most shops are displaying the parcels, made by themselves. Sometimes, a shop is dedicated to creating so many parcels that it becomes a parcel shop.
You can find those parcels in some minimarkets or convenince stores also.
12 – Discounts are everywhere, including in online market places
As mentioned before, a thing that is really lovely and enjoyable during Ramadhan, or a week before Eid Fitri day is the discount. When the Eid Fitri day is really close, many shops are suddenly throwing nice discounts for their products. This condition makes the shopping areas like factory outlets and malls always full of people.
Most of them will start hunting the products they’ve always wanted.
13 – During Sahur, the roads will be more crowded
Seeing the point of where breaking fast time is always making the roads go crazy, you also need to understand that during Sahur as well, which is moment before the dawn where people eat to gain strength for fasting all day, the road condition doesn’t get any better.
This condition is the result of this activity of SOTR or Sahur On The Road.
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14 – Online services are still online, even during Sahur
If you happen to have zero skills at cooking, you can always rely on the good old online driver to get you the foods you wanted. Thanks to technology, online delivery services like Gojek and Greb are always online and able to send their best drivers for you.
They are really handful, especially in the moment like Sahur.
15 – There are kids waking people up during Sahur
And the last one in things you must know when in Indonesia during Ramadhan is actually the people’s activity to wake others up during Sahur. There’s no official name of this activity, yet it still lives until today.
Some kids will use any instrument they can get to wake people up. They will go on the streets with the holy task of waking people up for Sahur.
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