Every 28th of November, Indonesians commemorate National Fairy Tale Day. The date was chosen because it’s also Suyadi’s (also known as Pak Raden) birthday. Pak Raden created the “Si Unyil” children television show that helped popularise and preserve fairy tales and children’s stories. Therefore, this commemoration was also created to preserve the culture of storytelling in Indonesia.
Salsabilla Octaviani, a class of 2022 Communication Science student gave her opinion on the role of fairy tales in children’s lives. According to Salsa, fairy tales can help improve the creativity and imagination of children. “Fairy tales depict a fantasy world and also miracles that encourage children to imagine wonderful things,” said Salsa. Other than that, some fairy tales also plant good values and ethics in their stories, which can encourage children to develop a good attitude. For example, the Malin Kundang tale can be an effective medium to teach children to be humble and respectful to their elders.
Faqih Azhar, a class of 2022 Communication Science student gave a similar opinion. He thinks that fairy tales have a significant role in the lives of children because they can be entertaining, give comfort, deliver moral lessons, improve children’s imagination, and train their ability to think. Fairy tales can teach children in an interesting, entertaining, and easily digestible way. Aside from that, fairy tales can also contribute to improving children’s language abilities and strengthen the relationship between a child and their teacher.
In order to commemorate National Fairy Tale Day, Salsa, as one of the heads of the KJ21 club said that she and other KJ members will try to design contents like fun quizzes or games for Instagram. Faqih who’s also one of the heads of KJ21 planned a storytelling session between KJ21 members as the storytellers and the adoptees. They will also ask the children to interact through stories, create fairy tale illustrations, and act out roles from the stories they heard. It is hoped that this activity would not only entertain them but also become a meaningful way of teaching.
For National Fairy Tale Day, Salsa hopes that children can take care and preserve Indonesian fairy tales because aside from improving their imagination and creativity, fairy tales are also a cultural heritage and it’s important to preserve them. On the other hand, Faqih hopes that fairy tales can forever be an important part of Indonesian children’s education. He also hopes that parents, teachers, and communities’ awareness on the effectiveness of fairy tales as an education media can increase. Last but not least, he hopes that the KJ21 adoptees can be inspired from fairy tales to dream big, internalise the moral values in fairy tales, and grow their love for Indonesian culture and traditions. We hope their wishes can come true and fairy tales can forever be preserved in Indonesia. Happy Fairy Tale Day! (Ed)