by Nurul Fitri Ramadhani

JAKARTA, March 31 (Xinhua) -- It was 3 p.m. when Donita Sebriani, 21, went out of her house with two friends. They went to some food outlets selling takjil, a local term referring to the snacks eaten for breaking the fast by Muslims in Indonesia.

Sebriani and one of her friends, Erlinda Saputriwengi, are Christians. The other friend, Karina Hanifah Putria, is a Muslim.

Putria told Xinhua that among them, it was Sebriani who was the most excited to go out to hunt some takjil every day. "I'm the one who is fasting all day long, but she is more ambitious than me in buying snacks. It is just 3 p.m. Most Muslims usually start to hunt the snacks at 5 p.m.," she said, teasing her friend.

Just recently, a phenomenon called "takjil war" went viral on social media among people in Indonesia, home to the world's largest Muslim population. The war jokingly refers to the competition between Muslims and non-Muslim communities in buying takjil because the snacks are deemed very tempting, tasty and could hardly be found outside the Ramadan fasting month.

Some popular Ramadan dishes, such as kolak (bananas stewed in coconut milk and palm sugar) and biji salak (boiled mashed sweet potato made with tapioca flour), are nowhere to be found on normal days.

"I really like kolak. It's difficult to find it if it's not Ramadan month. Now we can find it everywhere. I do not want to miss it," Sebriani said.

A number of Indonesian high-level officials and noted politicians, such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Retno Marsudi and former presidential candidate Anies Baswedan, also joined the hype, posting their takjil war moments in the markets on their social media accounts.

The activities of hunting snacks for breaking the fast has been a long Ramadan tradition in Indonesia. Muslims usually go out to buy the snacks around 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. before they break the fast at 6 p.m.

On social media, the enthusiasm of non-Muslim communities joining the hype of takjil war was welcomed warm-heartedly by most of the Muslim communities in the country.

Professor of Sociology from Indonesia's Airlangga University, Bagong Suyanto, said the takjil war phenomenon came as a good trend, because it carried a moral message to respect each other despite religious differences.

Many Indonesian social media users also thanked their non-Muslim friends for helping the sellers, categorized as small-medium enterprises (SMEs), by buying the snacks.

Akbar Kiman, 50-year-old takjil seller in Bendungan Hilir market in Central Jakarta, told Xinhua how the takjil war trend had benefited him. He opened his merchant at 3:30 p.m. and many buyers had queued to buy his gorengan (fried snacks) made from bananas and tofu.

"I'm sure that among the buyers there were non-Muslims, but they look very excited. It does not matter what their religions are, as long as they buy my snacks. All the snacks are sold out every day," said the man who had become a seasonal takjil seller for 12 years.

Eisha Maghfiruha Rachbini, head of Centre of Digital Economy and SMEs from Jakarta-based think-tank Institute For Development of Economics and Finance (Indef), said the takjil war phenomenon was projected to benefit the local sellers greatly.

She predicted that the culinary snacks may help boost sales of the SMEs by around 40 to 60 percent compared to last year's Ramadan.

"The sales of SMEs will tend to be good during March to early April due to the transactions made during Ramadan season," she said. Enditem

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