Tumbilotohe, The Festival of Light of Gorontalo

           Have you ever heard of a town called Gorontalo? If you have not heard about this town before, let me introduce you to my hometown, Gorontalo.  Gorontalo is a province in the northern part of Celebes (Sulawesi) Island of Indonesia. There are actually thousands of islands in Indonesia and Celebes Island is one of its biggest islands. This island looks like the letter K on the map. Gorontalo is on the upper right side of the island. In Gorontalo, there is a festival called Tumbilotohe. This festival has a strong relation with the Islamic feast day, the Ied al-Fitr.  In this article I will take you to my hometown, Gorontalo, to see the history and the meaning of this festival for Gorontalese. Hopefully, one day, you might have a chance to decorate your own alikusu. 

Map of Indonesia

Source :https://joshuaproject.net/assets/media/profiles/maps/m11931.pdf

           The word Tumbilotohe comes from Gorontalo language. It consists of two words Tumbilo and tohe. Tumbilo means to set and tohe means lamps. Therefore Tumbilotohe means setting lamps. It is usually performed on the last three days of the fasting month (27^th until 30^th of Ramadan month) before the feast day, and usually in the summer season.  Tumbilotohe is a cultural event to celebrate Ied al-Fitr (the Muslim feast day), where people turn on the traditional lamps for three nights before the feast day starting from 6 p.m. until 5 a.m. These traditional lamps used to be made of a bottle with a string of wick filled with resin wood oil. Nowadays, people prefer to use kerosene, as it's hard to find resin wood oil.  In this festival, when the night falls, people switch off the electric lamps and they change it with millions of traditional lamps.

photographer: Muhammad Halid/Tag Pohuwato dan Christopel Paino/Rappler

source: https://www.wego.co.id/berita/melihat-gemerlap-tradisi-tumbilotohe-di-gorontalo/

             The history of Tombilotohe is associated with the Islamic religion in this province. Islam came to Gorontalo with the marriage between a Muslim Princess from Gomonjolo kingdom of Palasa, South Sulawesi and a King from the Gorontalo kingdom in the 14^th century. At the time, King Amaii, the King of Gorontalo and all the Gorontalo people were Animism.  King Amaii fell in love with a Gomonjolo princess who was known for her beauty and kindness. The princess agreed to marry the King with one condition that the King and all the people had to accept Islam. The King agreed with the condition because of his love for the princess. Nowadays, although almost 99 percent of Gorontalese are Muslim, some of Gorontalo’s customs are still practiced and preserved. After the spread of Islam in Gorontalo, since the 15^th century, Tumbilotohe was held in order to help the Muslim people do activities the night before feast day (the Ied al-Fitr).

 Tumbilotohe was intentionally aimed for lightening the activities of the Muslims who do their religious obligations during the night of Ramadhan (the fasting month). During this time, Muslims mostly spend their time to pray at the mosque all night and read the holy Qur’an. Because of the Islamic calendar is based on a lunar calendar, at the end of Ramadhan, there is no moon in the sky, this makes the roads very dark. Therefore, they used traditional lamps to light their way. Today Tumbilotohe is still done every year on the last there days before the feast day. Since 2000, the Indonesian government decided to make Tumbilotohe a national festival. It is part of Gorontalo`s culture based on historical Muslim activity, Therefore, the government is doing all efforts to maintain it. Now, millions of traditional lamps turn on every three nights before the Ied al-Fitr feast day.  

https://www.pixoto.com/images-photography/news-and-events/world-events/tumbilotohe-4742798926413824

photographer: Nasrul Umam

Decorating lamps are the most exciting part of this festival. People decorate traditional lamps in front of the house, sidewalk, rivers, trees and every part of public buildings such as the mosque, football yard, and local government offices. Also, empty fields and even farmlands are full of colorful lamps painted with beautiful calligraphy. Every family tries to make the best decorating lamps. They decorate every gateways entrance with yellow leaves, bananas, and sugar cane trees. They believe that yellow leaves are the symbol of happiness, bananas are the symbol of prosperity and sugar cane trees are the symbol of hospitality and glory to welcome the Ied al- Fitr. They also hang many lamps on the traditional fences. The lamps which hang on the gateways with some decorations are called Alikusu. It is quite wonderful; the lights coming from millions of bottle lamps adorn Gorontalo. The town looks shining with millions of stars which are sparkling around the town. All children and adults happily wait for nightfall. After the sunset comes and breaks their fasting, they race to set on their traditional lamps.

 

Alikusu

At the same time with the festival, women make some traditional sweet cookies to welcome family and other people. There are many cookies that they make but the most traditional and delicious one for me is karawang cookies.

Karawang Cookie

 Karawang cookie is a traditional treat that only has two different variants; yellow and chocolate. Children and adults love this cookie very much. This cookie is crispy, layered with delicious dark chocolate or cream and painted with colorful melted sugar on the top.  Making this cookie needs skills and passions because this cookie is different than other cookies. It is very small and it needs artistic skills to paint it with colorful melted sugar. I learned to make this cookie when I was 15 years old, but I have never had success in painting it.  Painting this cookie is a very difficult process since it is very tiny and it should be painted with flowers, leaves and a stalk on top. My mom usually makes this cookie at midnight when everybody is asleep. There is a logical reason for that because when she makes it at noon, my nephew will open his fasting early. No matter how many cookies are made, it always runs out before it is arranged into the jar. The cookies smell always tempts people to taste it again and again.

Bunggo

Photographer: @billy_rumansi

On the night of this festival, men and children play Bunggo in the field. Bunggo is a local cannon which is made from bamboo. These three-day festivals become lively with Bunggo attractions. People usually compete their Bunggo`s sound with each other. During the festival, the sound of Bunggo is like the thunder of cannons in a war movie. It so crowded that I cannot hear people talking beside me. Surprisingly, when the time for praying comes to all sounds stop for a while then after praying, it will be played again over the night. The smoke comes from the bunggos and a million lamps become one harmony. When you wake up in the morning and wash your face, you will find that your nostrils are black by the smoke that you breathed.

            This festival has brought many advantages to Gorontalese. It surely increases the income of Gorontalese. A lot of people come to Gorontalo to enjoy the view of Gorontalo in the night of Tombilotohe. They come from other islands like Java, Sumatra, Borneo, and Papua. This festival also attracts foreign tourists from neighboring countries such as Malaysia, Brunei, and Australia.  During the festival, all hotel and cottage in Gorontalo are often fully booked by local Indonesians and foreign tourists. Furthermore, many people get income from selling handicrafts and traditional food. Moreover, this festival also gathers families that live on other islands. My parents’ house will be full of relatives. My uncle, aunt, and cousin gather together once a year to enjoy the festival and also to celebrate the Ied Fitr.

This festival also strengthens the unity and solidarity among Gorontalese. People usually help each other before, during, and after the festival. Before it begins, women have to create ornaments made of yellow leaves, while men look for bamboo and set it up to hang the lamps along the roads and empty fields. This task is the most difficult one to do because they work from morning to afternoon while fasting. Working below the hot sunny day when fasting is hard to do unless you have a very strong faith and solidarity. Sometimes they might hurt their hands because bamboo plant is hard to cut and they do not use gloves for protection. Amazingly, they keep working and joking with their stomachs growling.  During the night of the festival, all men in the family have a duty to keep the lamps alive. They watch the lamps so they do not cause fires while still burning until the morning. The festival ends in the morning of Ied al Fitr. After the Morning Prayer and visiting relatives, there are many tasks to do such as cleaning the roads and collecting all the bottle lamps. Because of working together, it does not take many times to do. On the afternoon, we can enjoy the feast day with eating as much as we can or collecting the Ied money from our relatives.

Above all, this festival helps Gorontalese to keep our ancestor tradition alive so our children and grandchildren will see and feel the happiness and the glory to welcome Ied Fitr. Tumbilotohe is not only unique because it is not found in other places in Indonesia but also it creates unity and solidarity to all Gorontalese. I wish that our children will still be proud of this festival, so they will keep this tradition although time changes.   

 I wish to see the Tumbilotohe festival this year. I have missed it for many years.  Living far away from my hometown, made me realized that I do miss my beautiful Gorontalo. I miss the happiness of settling the lamps like I always do with my youngest sister a long time ago. So, readers, if you want to see something unique, feel the solidarity, and taste delicious cookies I do recommend you to visit my hometown, the town where the people`s hearts are as shining as millions of stars.