On Friday, August 16th 2024, marks the start of this year’s annual 17th of August competitions hosted by SMAPJ SDA to celebrate Indonesia’s 79th year of independence. Everyone was running wild to win prizes. Bringing out their utmost potential, everyone works their hardest in engaging in various competitions as they work out their team coordination and physical skills to their fullest.
Lomba 17 Agustus-an, or the 17th of august competitions or tournament is a tradition that’s done nationally where people of all ages in Indonesia can compete in various kinds of exciting, creative, and unique competitions or tournaments to mainly celebrate the country’s independence. Though this tradition has been done throughout these years over and over again, it is impossible for people to grow out of it. All citizens of Indonesia will always look forward to participate in these competitions, and who wouldn’t? It has always been a special tradition for all of Indonesia, as it brings a sense of unity and family to celebrate the independence day as a whole country.
The climax of the tournaments hosted by SMAPJ SDA was held on 17th of August, the day of independence. Before the start of all the actual craze competitions that everyone has been anticipating, no one is allowed to be absent from the national flag ceremony held in independence day. The reason why this ceremony is such a crucial and important requirement for everyone, its because it serves a purpose of fostering a sense of nationalism and also to commemorate the services of the heroes who fought for victory in the process of Indonesian’s independence. After an hour or so of the ceremony, the competitors would quickly prepare themselves for the upcoming competitions that day, ready to compete with friendly rivalry to win an overall prize as everyone gets all riled up.
Now, who’s excited for the competitions? But let’s be realistic here, who isnt? For the ones that are held on the 17th, the first one is a kind of competition that isnt widely or commonly held for Lomba Agustus-an, which is called “Met Gala”. You can already tell from the title, its a fashion show competition obviously based on the actual Met Gala we’re all familiar about. Regardless, the Met Gala held in SMAPJ SDA is a fashion show where a few students form each class are selected to dress up traditional style clothing from the province that’s selected. Every class made sure everyone knew they really tried their best. Every class’s turn will never not get at least one person screaming from the crowd, in amusement of course. They all wore such beautiful and enticing costumes with eye-catching designs that embodies the province chosen, and the traditional feel of it can still be felt and seen very clearly, which is very important to truly represent the soul of the selected province they chose.
Who’s ready to get all energized and ready for some jumping and rock paper scissors? The last-but-not-least game features a pretty unique tournament type competition, called Kardus Racing. It has a pretty unique concept, and everyone was totally there for it. Few students from every class gets to compete with eachother, jumping on as many pieces of cardboard as quick as you can before meeting with an opponent from a different team, then playing rock paper scissors and the winner has to reach the end as fast as they can to win! Out of all the other tournaments, Kardus Racing by far shares the most laughter and excitement, watching the competitors indulge themselves in the game so much as everyone cheered them on will never fail to be the highlight of everyone’s day.
First come the games, and out comes the prizes! The winners were shaking in their boots in excitement once it was time for the rewards to be given, ready to share and gobble up on all the various tasty snacks. Not only do the classes get rewards for winning the games, classes that didnt win had the chance to win other rewards based on performance too! Classes can get awards for being the coolest, the most active, the most diligent, and so on, that way everyone can get a fair share of yummy treats after some friendly rivalry.
Traditions like these are things all students of SMAPJ SDA will look forward too, think of it like a break from all the work and to just have the chance to have fun and play games together, learn how to work as a team and bring out your utmost potential to reach a goal. Even if you end up going home exhausted, the memories, the moments and the shared laughter you had with your friends while celebrating are worth a life time.
Editor in Chief : Syakira Azzah K. S.
Journalist : Katrina Tasya P. S.
Editor & Translator : Syakira Azzah K. S.
Photo : Jasmine ‘25
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Indonesian
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