Did anyone see the comment on my "Lebaran Annoyances" post (that I've since deleted) that basically said "get with the culture or go home and quit complaining about it"? Well, I'm sure this post will send him into apoplectic fits.
One of the things you can count on in the Western world is a stable calendar. We're a business driven society, and business operates by the clock ('round the clock, in some instances). Imagine what would happen if President Obama came on TV and announced via presidential decree: "We're adding an additional Sunday to this week so we can have another full day of NFL." The shock wave would ripple the world.
All of the Indonesian calendars indicated Idul Fitri was on 30 and 31 of August this year. Everyone (including myself) made plans based on the belief that these dates were valid. And they were, until 30 August when the Minister of Religion changed the holiday to be 31 August and 1 September. How can this be? If I remember my early "culture training", it has to do with when the key religious figure sees the moon (but don't quote me on this). If a night is cloudy, and they don't see the moon, they can't declare the end of the fast, and the start of the holiday. Monday night must have been cloudy (I don't remember).
In any event, we're staying in the hotel an additional night.
Why the hotel? The whole point of staying in the hotel was to avoid the fireworks. We obviously can't ask the people in our neighborhood to forgo their tradition of exploding things until 3 AM simply because we don't like to be kept awake. That wouldn't be neighborly. Instead, we avoid the noise by checking into a hotel. The end of the holiday is the biggest night for it, so we extended our stay to miss the final night.
Did it work? No. We still hear them. But, we now actually get to see them with a spectacular vantage point. And they are much quieter, so we're sleeping normally.
What do you think? How would this go over in a Western nation?
One of the things you can count on in the Western world is a stable calendar. We're a business driven society, and business operates by the clock ('round the clock, in some instances). Imagine what would happen if President Obama came on TV and announced via presidential decree: "We're adding an additional Sunday to this week so we can have another full day of NFL." The shock wave would ripple the world.
All of the Indonesian calendars indicated Idul Fitri was on 30 and 31 of August this year. Everyone (including myself) made plans based on the belief that these dates were valid. And they were, until 30 August when the Minister of Religion changed the holiday to be 31 August and 1 September. How can this be? If I remember my early "culture training", it has to do with when the key religious figure sees the moon (but don't quote me on this). If a night is cloudy, and they don't see the moon, they can't declare the end of the fast, and the start of the holiday. Monday night must have been cloudy (I don't remember).
In any event, we're staying in the hotel an additional night.
Why the hotel? The whole point of staying in the hotel was to avoid the fireworks. We obviously can't ask the people in our neighborhood to forgo their tradition of exploding things until 3 AM simply because we don't like to be kept awake. That wouldn't be neighborly. Instead, we avoid the noise by checking into a hotel. The end of the holiday is the biggest night for it, so we extended our stay to miss the final night.
Did it work? No. We still hear them. But, we now actually get to see them with a spectacular vantage point. And they are much quieter, so we're sleeping normally.
What do you think? How would this go over in a Western nation?
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