As though the coronavirus wasn’t scary enough, Kepuh, a village located on the Java island of Indonesia has quite literally decided to scare its residents even more.
“Ghosts” or “Pocong” as they call it in Indonesia, are popular ghosts known in their local folklore for haunting graveyards. They wear parts of a burial shroud, tie a knot on the head and their feet. They are known to represent the trapped souls of those who have died.
In Indonesia’s central Java province, people are dressing up in white sheets with faces powdered in pale makeup, pretending to be ghosts and scaring people amidst the coronavirus outbreak.
They are doing this to frighten people and instill fear in them so that they stay home, avoiding the further spread of the infection.
The people who become ghosts are volunteers who work in coordination with the local law enforcement body. They willingly take on this responsibility of scaring the villagers.
But what’s funny is that this experiment is said to be counterproductive. It’s original aim was to shoo people away from the streets back into their homes.
However, what is happening in reality is that people are becoming more curious to find out about these ghosts and who they are. Hence, they come outside of their homes to spot these white creatures, defeating the whole purpose.
This pandemic seems to be bringing out the best, worst and the craziest in people. What’s left to witness is the extremes to which these absurd tactics could go.