In 2nd October, Indonesia celebrates The National Batik Day. The date is chosen as the National Batik Day remembering the date where Batik assigned as Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Batik is a traditional cloth from Indonesia. The name Batik derived from Amba which means writing and Titik means a dot. It refers to the way we made the traditional hand-writing Batik. We draw a motif to a plain white cloth and then cover it in wax to preserve the color before we dip it into a coloring jar.
In Indonesia, we have a lot of Batik’s Motif. It is different in each region and it symbolizes the culture of the region. Javanese Batik is considered as the oldest Batik. Batik culture came from it the Majapahit kingdom, so some of the motifs have their own meaning and sanctity. For example, the Parang Rusak motif. It is considered as a sacral motif so that only the Royal family can wear it. It has the shape of a repeated letter S symbolizes an endless wave which can be interpreted as harmony. The classic batik can be recognized by the color. It tends to have a soft color rather than a vibrant color. The most used color in classic batik is brown, white, and black. It is different with the more modern batik which uses more vibrant color like light red, light blue, yellow, etc.
Yogyakarta’s royal motif batik
During the National Batik Day, students, teachers, and employees in School and other Government Agencies are obliged to wear Batik. There are a lot of benefits given to the people who wear Batik on that day, such as discount in many shops throughout Indonesia.
Batik is also well-known in the world as Nelson Mandela often wear it for his formal attire in a lot of opportunities. He even has his own Batik collection in his house. From Nelson Mandela, Bill Gates, Jessica Alba, Drew Berrymore until ex-President Barrack Obama have ever worn Batik. So, are you interested in Batik? If you do, you can visit one of Batik workshop during your visit in Indonesia.
