Cangkruk is one of the tradition of Javanese culture. At first, the term “cangkruk” is used to define when people are sitting in front of their house, or in the side of the road with their neighbor in the village. Back then, when people do cangkruk, they don’t have to set up a meeting. They just hang out there for some time, then they wait for those who will come. Now, cangkruk is changing because of globalization. People right now tend to make appointment with their friends, then they hang out with their own friends. The habit of cangkruk is already rooting in the life of Indonesian because to hang out and socialize with others is becoming a culture for Indonesian, especially here in Surabaya.
The meaning of cangkruk right now, if summarized from our google research is: to meet up with a friend, hanging out, chatting to discuss about something. In our everyday language, this is equal to sharing or story telling, but of course we aim it to positive stuff
Cangkruk, what is it?
People usually do cangkruk in a small shop called “warung.” Warung sells snacks like tahu tek, tahu isi, pisang goreng, sate kerang, sate puyuh, etc. Yes, those are Indonesia’s local food. Cangkruk is done by almost all of Indonesians but they call it by different terms. For example, in South Kalimantan, especially in Banjarmasin, people there call it “mawarung.”
From the small shop on the side of the streets, café, coffee shop, even to fancy restaurants, has change it’s functions Not only as a place to eat, but also a place where teenagers go and meet up. There are many things that can be done when we are cangkruking. Starting from talking about our work / assignments, to our personal problems, even when we just want to find a good, comfortable atmosphere to share some stuff with our friends. Cangkruk is a way of bonding with your friends.
Cangkruk also gives many benefit. Some of those benefits are: we can share our experience with others, we can know other people, we can laugh a lot when we have fun with our friends and it can relieve stress. But on the other hand, we’re being encouraged not to do cangkruk too much. Why? First, our work might not be done in time, or even not done at all because we do too much cangkruk. Second, everytime we cangkruk, our expenses expands.
Good or bad of cangkruk actually depends on each individuals, if the discussion matter at cangkrukan is filled with useful stuff and can even give solution to our problem, cangkruk can me a positive thing. But when we gossip and make fun of other people behind their back, we make cangkruk a bad thing.
