Family Day on the Motorcyle

This past Saturday and Sunday was the Idul Fitri holiday when Muslims break their month long fast and go celebrate with their family. Many people travel for several hours, if not a day or more to be with their families for this occasion. It is kind of like how Americans celebrate Christmas in that most businesses are closed, families get together in mass and lots of people take vacation time to travel to be with loved ones. And since Indonesians are very communal, their efforts to get together and their gatherings go above and beyond what most Americans do at Christmas.

During this holiday, Jakarta, in general, is a much quieter place as most people travel out to the villages from where their family first came to celebrate there. But on Saturday, the first of the official 2 day holiday, we witnessed a phenomona that I had not expected to see but made sense once I thought about it. While we were out driving on Saturday morning, I noticed many more families riding on motorcycles than ever before. Usually the 3 and 4 person families on a motorcyle might make up about 5% of the motorcycle traffic. On Saturday, however, that number seemed to have jumped to at least 50%. And I can't even tell you how many of the kids on the motorcycles were just dead asleep. I still can't imagine how they can sleep while riding on a motorcycle that is weaving in between traffic while they are sitting smooshed between their parents or with their heads resting on the motorcycle handlebars. I so wish I would have had my camera!! I even saw my first 5 person motorcycle. I don't know how they do it. And there also seemed to be a lot more traffic on the road than I would have expected. I guess they were all headed to grandma's house.