Indonesian Catholics mark Holy Week with horse parades and traffic jams
More and more initiatives are getting underway with the enthusiastic participation of the faithful. Churches fill up. Eager volunteers perform various tasks. Parishioners take part in liturgical and practical activities.
Jakarta (AsiaNews) – For Indonesia’s Catholic community, Holy Week is a time that creates a supportive atmosphere to which the faithful participate with great enthusiasm. In such an important moment of the liturgical year, they eagerly take part in the many initiatives organised for the occasion.
Across the country, horseback parades proved a great hit among the faithful in this year’s Palm Sunday. In Yogyakarta (Central Java), Fr Bintoro, an Air Force chaplain, rode his horse alongside many local Catholics. Fr Rochadi, parish priest at St John Vianney Church in Cilangkap, got all his parishioners involved in a similar special "performance".
As usual, churches fill up at this time of the year. This means throngs of people coming and going. To ease the traffic, parking is crucial. Given the limits of public transport in Jakarta, as in other parts of the country, people are forced to travel by their own means.
Thus, hundreds of noisy cars and motorcycles can be found parked next to churches. Not all of them can be accommodated. Volunteers help out, often with great difficulty, to avoid chaotic traffic jams and prevent people from becoming a nuisance for their non-Christian neighbours.
During Holy Week, the number of Masses is reduced to two or three a day. Crucially, parishioners volunteer their help as people arrive early to church, sometimes hours before the service.
For worshippers, holding on to their seat becomes imperative since Masses can last up to two or three hours. To this end, some people “organise” seat arrangements.
The life of Indonesian Catholics is vibrant and dynamic. In the Archdiocese of Jakarta, many parishioners contribute joyfully to services by helping priests in the liturgy as well as in the practical aspects of community life.
For the liturgy, enthusiastic volunteers are given different tasks. Some prepare floral arrangements or collect offerings; others are in charge of security or liturgical protocols.
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