National Children's Day 2026, the Minister of Culture encourages children to get to know culture through traditional games

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Culture uses the 2026 National Children's Day to invite children to be closer to Indonesian culture through traditional games. This step is part of an effort to reduce children's dependence on digital screens while instilling a love of cultural heritage from an early age.

Minister of Culture Fadli Zon conveyed this when attending the "Generasi Berani Exploring - Let Them Run" Festival at The CIBIS Business Park, Jakarta, Saturday (25/7). The event, which was held together with the Minister of Communication and Digital Meutya Hafid, was a collaboration between the government, business world, community, media, and family.

The festival supports the implementation of the Government Regulation on the Governance of the Electronic System in Child Protection (PP TUNAS) through various educational activities that encourage a balance between activities in the digital space and the real world.

The Ministry of Culture through the Directorate of Digital Culture Development collaborates with the Hong Community to present traditional play equipment for children aged 5 to 8 years.

Children will be introduced to various games, such as congklak or dakon, kelom batok, keris-kerisan, ulet-uletan, burung-burungan, bekel, rorodaan, gasing, racing jajar, and dam-daman. Group games such as dragon snakes, banana ampar-ampar, suweng cublak-cublak, and cing ciripit will also be played.

The Ministry of Culture hopes that this activity can foster a sense of pride and emotional closeness of children to the richness of Indonesian culture.

In addition to traditional games, the festival also presents discussions, family sports, educational games, and the launch of the Children and Family Activity Inspiration Pocket Book. The book was compiled with a community of parents, educators, health workers, and child development observers as a guide for activities outside the digital screen.

In the video broadcast commemorating National Children's Day 2026, Fadli invited Indonesian children to love culture as part of preparation for Indonesia's Gold 2045.

"Hopefully Indonesian children will always love Indonesian culture, get more advanced, and become part of the Indonesian Golden Generation 2045. Let's support Indonesian children to achieve and always love Indonesian culture and civilization," said Fadli.

Through the festival, the government hopes that children will have a more balanced growing space, namely to remain safe in the digital space while being active, healthy, and close to culture in daily life.