Indonesia Edition
World Everyday Inventor Day leads today's complete edition for Indonesia.
Daily Edition
Official observances, world days, local context, and everyday celebrations for people who need something worth reading, sharing, or talking about today.
A day for improvised fixes, clever storage, new uses for old things, and the small engineering people do without a title.
On August 17, 1945, Sukarno and Hatta declared independence from Japan (not the Netherlands, which tried to reclaim the colony). The declaration was read at Pegangsaan Timur 56, a house that no longer exists but is commemorated with a plaque. Every year at 10:17 AM, the flag is raised at the National Palace, and every Indonesian stops what they are doing. The children's flag-raising competition is the most emotional event of the year, because the children who raise the flag are the same age as the nation was when it declared independence: young, scared, and determined.
The neighborhood competitions on Independence Day: sack races, cracker eating contests (krupuk eating with hands tied behind the back), marble-in-spoon races, and the balancing race where you carry a bucket of water on your head. The children take it seriously, the adults take it more seriously, and the grandparents win the krupuk eating contest every year.
On Independence Day, a greased pole (pinang) is set up in every neighborhood, with prizes hanging from the top. Teams of men climb the pole, which is smeared with oil, and they always fall, and they always try again. The game is impossible, the prizes are modest, and the determination is boundless. It is the most Indonesian game there is: a team effort, a shared goal, a slippery surface, and a refusal to quit.