Jakarta - Draped in a demure brown headscarf, Martini, 70, prays at her parents‘ graveside like thousands of other Indonesian Muslims ahead of the holy fasting month, lending a festive air to cemeteries here.
Muslims in Indonesia, the world‘s most populous Islamic-majority nation, are set to begin Ramadan, the ninth and holiest month of the Muslim calendar, on Thursday.
"Before the fasting month, I always come here to visit my late parents to pray for them," Martini explains, standing by their graves at one of the main cemeteries in the congested Indonesian capital Jakarta.
The sprightly woman has travelled more than two hours by public transport on her annual pilgrimage.
Hundreds of similarly tradition-bound Muslims have converged here, making the traffic jams worse than usual, while dozens of shrewd vendors eyeing a spike in sales have set up stalls among the graves.
Some come like Martini to simply say a prayer for their ancestors.
Others ask for their forgiveness, just as they ask their living relatives, friends and colleagues to forgive them any wrongdoings of the past year so they can enter Ramadan absolved and cleansed.
Priyanto, 36, sits by his father‘s grave quietly smoking. His mother‘s grave is a little further away, despite them both dying of cancer within a month of each other three years ago.
"When they were still alive, I always visited them before Ramadan to ask their forgiveness before starting the fasting days. But now as they have already passed away, I‘ve come here to ask their forgiveness," he says.
Ria, a 48-year-old mother of two, has paid 20,000 rupiah (about two dollars) to a roaming "prayerman" to softly recite a passage from the Koran at her son‘s grave, which she is visiting with her daughters.
"It‘s a family ritual before starting the fasting month. It‘s an old belief that the spirits of the dead people are around us before and at the end of Ramadan. So it‘s time to visit the graves," she explains.
Like many, she will return during Idul Fitri, or Lebaran, the three-day festival marking the end of the month.
The start of Ramadan is a boon not just for the umbrella-toting prayermen, but the vendors selling everything from flowers to animal-shaped balloons for children, and fried tofu and bananas to the pious picnickers.
The visitors snap up sweet-scented jasmine and delicate red and white rose petals to scatter over the graves after they are spruced up, as well as fragrant rosewater to sprinkle across them.
Marliana has been selling flowers and rosewater ahead of Ramadan for the past five years.
"I‘ll use the money that I gain now to celebrate Ramadan and Lebaran. I need money to buy my kids new clothes," she said, referring to the tradition of purchasing new outfits for the festival.
Hasan, a food hawker, says he wouldn‘t be anywhere else at this time of year to serve up his steaming bowls of chicken noodle soup.
"I earn about 200,000 rupiah, double compared to a usual day for me," he grins.
But not all the vendors are happy. Rukmini has worked as a grave cleaner during this period for more than a decade but says this year the crowds are thinner as people are facing tougher economic times.
"We‘re facing difficult conditions because prices are rising. People are also paying me less," she grumbles, adding that she has made less than half her earnings of last year.
Source: afp.google.com (13 September 2007)
