THE JAKARTA POST: YEARLY RECONCILIATION IN SEMPER BARAT, NORTH JAKARTA
The first Sunday of every new year, after church, people of Kampung Tugu, gather at a house of a respected elderly to hold a new year celebration called ‘mandi-mandi’. They say mandi-mandi is a Portuguese word meaning “to forgive each other”. About 300 members of the Tugu community smeared each other’s face with a light brown powder. It is their way of saying, “let there be no adversity in our hearts”.
Question to the Blogosphere: Do iterated apologies lead to continued reconciliation? Do these rituals keep the memory of the past alive? Is that a good thing? Can you think of other cases where this type of behavior has been successful? Does culture matter in determining the success of these sorts of efforts? For example, would this work in Germany?
Comments are closed.