The Religious Affairs Ministry organized a Cultural Carnival and fun walk to foster religious harmony in Garut district on Saturday, which was joined by people belonging to different backgrounds and religious beliefs from across West Java.

Head of the ministry’s Garut Office Cece Hidayat said that the Cultural Carnival was held to commemorate the 77th Charity Day of the Religious Affairs Ministry in 2023, with the theme “Religious Harmony Fun Walk.”

“Various customs from various regions in West Java are cultural treasures that we should preserve, and it turns out that culture has never intersected with religion; culture goes hand in hand with religion, thus people accept it,” he observed.

He said that the Cultural Carnival’s activities involved approximately nine thousand participants, including non-Muslims from various cities and districts of West Java.

“Some 1,500 more non-Muslim participants have joined this national fun walk,” he informed.

He said he expected the activity to improve the sense of togetherness, tolerance, and nationalism among religious communities in Garut and other areas.

The fun walk was expected to provide added value to the economy of Garut people, too, he added.

“Certainly, we give freedom to MSME (micro, small, and medium enterprise) business actors to sell, including (by providing) some dozens of booths designated for them,” he said.

Head of the ministry’s Regional Office, Ajam Mustajam, expressed his gratitude to the ministry’s Garut Office for successfully holding the Cultural Carnival activity.

There were four aspects that the office sought to achieve through the event—religious life values, economic values, social values, and cultural values, he noted.

“So there are four indicators of this activity, first improvement of the values of life of religious people, because all religious people are present here,” he said.

Deputy head of Garut district Helmi Budiman commended the regional representative of the ministry for choosing the district as the venue for the event.

He outlined Garut district’s vision, which upholds values such as piety, advancement, prosperity, harmony, and tolerance.

“Of course, I think this is not just a symbol, not just a doctrine, but truly something that is pursued, beginning from the heart as well, then the mind, also on a physical level, all together in harmony to build Garut district,” he remarked.

The activities at the carnival included a lion dance, as well as other regional arts such as debus, pencak silat, jaipongan dance, wayang golek, wayang orang, ogoh-ogoh, lengser, and even a display of replicas of a pair of monkeys and a tiger from the Pangandaran Office of the Religious Affairs Ministry.

There were also participants from Ciamis district, who performed Manusia Boboko Dudukuy (which is similar to Betawi’s ondel-ondel, but with attires made of household items), and Sumedang district, who displayed their renggong horse.

Source: Antara News