Wearing Scary Costume To Collect Coins

Don't be surprised that whenever you come to a Car Free Day in Indonesia, you may meet a "creature", a creepy one like in the above picture. It may scare many people, if they see such appearance in the middle of a night and in a cemetery.

Definitely, many people may suffer goosebump on their neck, including me and run to escape.

However, you should not be afraid of him (or her) because this hairy lady with a baby corpse on her hand is fake. Yes, she is a fake "kuntilanak", an Indonesia version of a lady ghost created from a woman who die when delivering a baby.

It is just a costume worn by a man or woman to imitate the "kuntilanak" and his/her attention is to earn a living. He/she is actually a street performer only. Their intention is to collect coins from Car Free Day's visitors.

Living in Indonesia is not easy for many people. The number of jobless people reaches to a level of more than 4 times of Singapore's citizens. Although, the government has tried their best to reduce the numbers every year but still it is still very high.

Wearing such spooky costume is one of the way for some people to obtain some money for their living. They provide themselves as a unique object for camera and usually, Car Free Days visitors will voluntarily put a 2000 rupiah note (or sometimes more) after the picture is taken.

They look frightening, definitely, even in the morning. But, "frightening", "scary" are the words that make Harry Jrueger famous in "Friday 13th", am I right? So, the idea is the same. Their scary look always attracts attention and this gives them a chance to collect coins from the visitors.

So, if you meet them on the street of Indonesia's cities, please be calm and don't run. They won't chase you. It is better to take your camera and do selfie with them. They can provide your photo album about your trip to Indonesia an additional unique object that you may remember for long time.