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| Faculty of Cultural Sciences students are wearing batik. |
Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) celebrated National Batik Day that falls every October 2. All staffs and students were recommended to wear batik clothes from Tuesday to Friday (10/2-6).
Almost everybody on Tuesday, October 2, obeyed the instruction to wear batik clothes.
One of the students wearing batik, Muhammad Rifqi Yahya, an Arabic literature student, said "The instruction to wear batik clothes is a good choice to celebrate National Batik Day. Beside celebrating National Batik Day, the instruction for UNS' staffs and students is also conserving our own culture".
UNESCO designated batik as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on October 2, 2009. The decree is a form of international recognition of Indonesian batik as a world cultural heritage.
According to Rifqi, today’s youngsters do not recognize batik as an Indonesia's own culture. Rifqi added, another way to celebrate batik day is by teaching students about making batik and learning about batik varieties.
Batik varieties can be differentiated by the way it's made, such as; Written Batik, Stamped Batik, and Printed Batik. Batik motif has different characteristic in each region as well as Jogjakarta's Batik motifs and Solo's Batik motifs.
Aisyah, a Javanese Literature student, gave another idea about the appropriate way in appreciating Batik as a cultural heritage. “Wearing batik clothes is not only worn in the formal events but also in daily activities. Youngsters’ paradigm of batik is closely related with kondangan, Indonesians' wedding party, therefore youngsters rarely wore batik. Based upon the history, batik was worn everyday as a day-to-day outfit,” Aisyah said.
Wearing batik clothes for UNS' staffs and students is considered to be an effective method to appreciate Indonesia’s national culture.
