If you love something festive, the place you should not miss coming to is definitely Papua. It is because, every year, there are a lot of festivals with cultural themes shown in several regions of Papua. Such as the Tanah Merah Bay Nautical Festival, which you could easily attend.
Located in Jayapura, a big city, this celebration of culture is easy for you to access. Aside from that, you could do a lot of activities here. Be it seeing performances full of cultures or various kinds of interesting races.
Here, you need to taste many typical foods of Papua too. In addition, this nautical festival contains a lot of philosophy. Here are some of them!
1. Preserving and Introducing Local Culture
Just like the purposes of other cultural festivals in Papua, this festive celebration also aims to preserve its own custom. Because, along with the increasingly rapid globalization, more and more young people are leaving their own traditions.
With this kind of celebration, their culture and also traditions will be sustainable. Apart from that, they will also introduce some of Papuan traditional culture to the society. The reason is that there are a lot of people who will perform something full of culture.
You could enjoy the traditional dances of Papua, especially the most famous ones from Jayapura. Aside from that, you could enjoy some singing performances too, both solo and vocal groups. Then, you could enjoy musical performances. The theater is there too.
2. Source of Entertainment
In addition to preserving and introducing their tradition, the purpose of this festive celebration is to entertain the community. Both for local people and tourists from outside the area. Entertainment comes in the form of various types of competitions, both for adults and children.
Keeping up with this festival’s “nautical” theme, most competitions are related to the sea. For example, the underwater photography competition, is the hallmark of this festival from year to year. Aside from that, there are also weaving, rowing, fishing, and diving races.
If most of the competitions are attended by adults, then the children do not want to lose. They also take part in several races, such as running competitions. Of course, attractive prizes are waiting for them if they win the races.
3. Uniting the Tribes
What makes it more interesting, in this festival, it is not only one tribe that participates. There are more than six villages from the coast that enliven this festival. Be it from the Demta Village, Depapre Village, West Sentani Village, Ravenirara Village, Moi Village, Yokar Village, etc.
Therefore, at this festival, many small tribes around the Tanah Merah area meet and exchange their own tribal culture. This will certainly create a sense of unity. So, one of the purposes of Tanah Merah Bay Nautical Festival is to unite the local community.
4. Promoting Tanah Merah as a Tourist Site
Then another reason for holding this festival is to promote Tanah Merah Bay as a tourist spot in Jayapura. Because this place has a lot of potentials. In particular, there are many historical sites lined up here. Starting from a shipwreck site from world war relics to an old church building.
In addition, this festival can also improve the economy of the locals. They can sell souvenirs, knick-knacks, food, etc. Therefore, you do not need to worry because you can eat delicious food and buy lots of souvenirs from this festival.
If you are interested in visiting the Tanah Merah Bay Nautical Festival, you can come to Jayapura around November. Usually, this festival is held from 19 to 21 November in the Tanah Merah area.