Birthday Celebration Traditions in Jakarta

Birthdays are perhaps one of the most significant days and the most celebrated events in the world that people anticipate celebrating each year. This much-awaited day is more than just about gifts, treats, surprises, and wishes. It is also about commemorating the day you first see the beauty of the outside world and enjoy your first breath. 

Though it is widely celebrated around the globe, how birthday celebrations are done vary based on tradition, culture, budget, and personal preferences or beliefs. Some people celebrate their birthday by hosting a grand celebration while others prefer a more solemn celebration like simply having a family dinner and blowing their favorite birthday Fromage cake. 

Among the countries in the world with unique ways of celebrating birthdays is Indonesia. Indonesian birthdays are celebrated differently depending on the tribe or cultural group, and family tradition. Some of these traditions include the following:

Family gathering

Birthdays are among the special occasions in Jakarta where families from different places gather in the celebrant’s home or in a rented event venue to meet and greet, celebrate, and eat together. 

Blowing and cutting of the cake

Just like in other places, birthday celebrations in Jakarta also involve blowing and cutting of a birthday cake, flavored cake, or Chocolat Fromage cake. It is the time when the celebrant gets to pick and enjoy the best chocolate birthday cake in Jakarta. However, people in Jakarta add some fun twists to this popular tradition. 

After singing the Indonesian birthday song entitled Selamat Ulang Tahun and saying their wishes, the guests will then sing Tiup Lilinya (Blow Off the Candle) while the celebrant blows the candles. After the candle blowing, cake cutting comes next. The guests will then sing the chant Potong Kenya (Cut the Cake) as the celebrant cuts the cake. 

Wearing traditional attire

Indonesians value their heritage and cultural roots. One of the traditions in Jakarta is wearing of traditional attire during special occasions like birthdays. 

Family dinner

The dinner is often attended by the celebrant’s families, friends, and even colleagues. Aside from the best birthday cake in Jakarta, part of the menu are the favorite foods of the celebrant. A typical birthday menu includes foods such as chicken, fish, beef, seafood, rice, noodles, sweets, and local foods like bakso, satay, and mie rebus. Sometimes Indonesian add some foreign or western foods like salad and spaghetti on their menu.

Making the celebrant feel either special or miserable

Whether a celebrant will feel special or miserable depends on how nice or fun-loving his or her friends are. If you are lucky to have nice friends, you will surely receive surprises that will make you feel special. 

However, if you have fun-loving friends, they will likely greet you in a fun, yet quite miserable way. You can be thrown into a pool, poured with foul-smelling sewer water, or thrown with fresh or rotten eggs, flour, soda, or a mixture of different liquids like soda drink, water, soup, and sauces. 

This birthday tradition may seem to be a cruel way of treating a birthday celebrant, but in Jakarta, tepung or flouring is enjoyed by the celebrants. If you go around the town looking awful, wet, smelly, covered with eggs, or showered with flour, people will immediately know that it is your natal day. They will greet you with a clap and wish you a Selamat Ulang Tahun.