Indonesian city glows with lanterns for Ramadan festival of light
JAKARTA: The streets of Solo, a historic royal capital on the Indonesian island of Java, have lit up with colorful installations for a festival of light that will run until the end of Ramadan.
Also known as Surakarta, the city known for its traditional Javanese culture and history was once the capital of the Mataram Sultanate — the last major independent Islamic kingdom in Java before it was colonized by the Dutch.
The Ramadan Light Festival is held around the Surakarta City Hall and along one of the city's main streets.
The lights were first lit on March 1, marking the first day of the fasting month in Indonesia. It is accompanied with a market for food and local products, which are offered for sale after sundown until the end of Ramadan.
'We organized this Ramadan Light Festival to honor and celebrate the month of Ramadan by installing decorations and lights along the city's main street,' Aloisius Satmaka Nugraha, who heads the tourism and creative economy development department in the city, told Arab News on Thursday.
'We hope that this would give some variety to the people of Surakarta.'
Since it was inaugurated in 2022, the annual festival of lights has been a center of attraction for residents of the city during Ramadan, many of whom take to social media to share photos of the vibrant and colorful installations.
'We also hold such events regularly to echo the spirit of tolerance among the residents of Surakarta … This event is part and parcel to other religious celebrations in the city,' Nugraha said.
Surakarta holds regular events in celebration of Indonesia's ethnic and religious diversity, including during Lunar New Year last month.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country, with about 87 percent of its 270 million population professing Islam. But the country officially recognizes five other religions: Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.
The archipelago nation is also home to hundreds of distinct ethnic groups, with some estimates putting the number at about 1,300.
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