Mudik

Mudik, or Pulang Kampung, is an Indonesian term for the activity where migrants or migrant workers return to their hometown or village during major holidays. Mudik is identical to the annual homecoming tradition that occurs ahead of major religious holidays, especially Lebaran (Eid al-Fitr). Although the mudik homecoming travel prior of lebaran took place throughout most of Indonesian urban centers, the highlight is on the nation's largest urban agglomeration; Greater Jakarta, as millions of Jakartans exit the city by various means of transportation, causing mass exodus from the city, overwhelming train stations and airports and also clogging highways, especially the Trans-Java toll road and Java's Northern Coast Road.

The motivation of this homecoming tradition is of course to visit one's family, especially their parents. However, people might insist and sought to come to their hometown during this certain period of mudik season, to attend a rare opportunity; to gather with members of extended family, the seldomly seen relatives that normally scattered in other cities, other provinces or even overseas.

Mudik for Eid al-Fitr, or its similar traditions, exists in countries with Muslim majorities, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Other similar annual homecoming traditions are also observable in various parts of the world, including Chinese New Year in China, Thai Songkran, Christmas in Europe, Divali in India and American Thanksgiving, where family members are expected to come home during this specific holidays.

The term mudik in Indonesian came the word mudik which means "to sail or to travel to udik (upstream, inland) by the river". The terms relates to the river system; udik or hulu (upstream) in contrast to hilir (downstream), thus the term "hulu-hilir" and "hilir-mudik" is common to describe the relations between upstream or source and downstream or estuary. The term mudik or udik is also found in local Indonesian languages, including Malay, Minang, Betawi, Sundanese and Javanese languages.

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