Tomohon is an important town in Northern Sulawesi. It is young but holds an important role in tourism of the province. The panorama and nature of Tomohon are attractions for those who travel this far. It lies between two volcanoes, Mt. Mahawu and Mt. Lokon. The town is shaped like a starfish, with long tentacles visible from higher ground. Because of its position on the highland, Tomohon has a very mild climate, for which it is famous. The friendliness of its people is also well-known in the region.



Most people in Tomohon are Christian. Christianity plays an important role in all aspects of life. The Christians are diligent churchgoers. Mostly are Calvinist Protestants, members of Gereja Masehi Injili di Minahasa, abbreviated as GMIM[17] /ghemeem/. Instead, the synod of the churches that spread over the Minahasa region is in Tomohon. Christianity has been developing in the area ever since the time of Dutch colonization. Every village in Tomohon has a church from this denomination. The oldest one is GMIM Pniel Kakaskasen 2.

Besides the Calvinists, there is also a Catholic congregation, which is the second biggest in Tomohon. Several parishes exist in Tomohon. The big ones are St. Fransiskus Xaverius in Kakaskasen and St. Joseph. In Kakaskasen, there is a Monestary called Biara Bukit Karmel or Karmel Monestary. There are also other congregations from other denominations such as Pentacostal, Adventist, and several minor denominations. Every village from north to south and east to west has luxurious churches (or at least luxe for its congregation). And also, one village would normally have more than one building according to the number of the denominations. That is one reason you will see a church every several hundred meters.



Holydays

Christian
During holiday times, the people will decorate their houses, the lanes, the streets and so on with special themes. For example, during Christmas and New Year Christmas ornaments can be easily found anywhere in town. In several corners and intersections or in front of the church, a big white candle would stand up iluminating the lightless surrounding or a big decorated Christmas tree. Christmas musics starts playing as soon as September. They normally say "the months end in '-ber' are Christmas." During 1st - 24th December, the smell of Christmas cookies usually feel the air. The standard Christmas cookies in Tomohon such as nastar, kastengels, rambutan, biji-biji, sultana, snow white, kacang koek, corn flakes, and so on. The names of Christmas cookies are varied too. Christmas season would normally end with together with New Year on January 31st. During December, there would always be celebration they called it pre-christmas. In one month, a person could attend more than 10 pre-christmas celebration, for example pre-christmas of the office, of the church, of the neighborhood, the school, the relative, family, youth organization, woman organization, from NGO, sunday schools and so on. All the celbration will end in a certain day called "kuncikan", literally means closing day.



Chinese's Holiday
The Chinese in Tomohon also still maintain their tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year and the biggest festival is on the 15th day after New Year, called Cap Go Meh. There will be a procession of calling the spirits of the Chinese Gods or Goddesses to possess mortal human bodies and they will be carried on sedan chairs from the temple around downtown to bestow their blessings on its believers. In this procession, the possessed mortal will perform magical things such as piercing the his own cheek with some solid and sharp stick without from one to the other side without any bleeding out, a sword carrier will hit his own back with a very sharp sword without injuring himself, the other will cut his own tongue without injuring himself as well. This procession usually attracts attention of the whole town.

Islamic Holiday
Islam believers, although, a few, but they still have number in Tomohon. There is a special community in Southern Tomohon, they lived in a village called Kampung Jawa, literally means Javanese Village. Idul Fitri and the Month of Ramadhan are also celebrated here. However, there is not special procession for the holidays like at the other cities in Indonesia but praying in the open field on the day of Idul Fitri.

Culture
Tomohon is one of Minahasa Tribe region. Therefore, the Tomohoners are Minahasans. However, Minahasa Tribe is divided into several sub tribes, Tomohon belongs to a sub tribe called Tombulu. Pakasaan Tombulu spreads from Tombuluan in the east of Pineleng and Tombariri in the west and from Tomohon in the sourth to Manado in the north. Pakasaan Tombulu speaks Tombulu Language, Manado Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia. It is believed that Tomohon is the center of Pakasaan Tombulu. Pakasaan Tombulu in Tomohon, especially those who lives in the region of Kakaskasen has special customs that is still maintained up until today.

Bakerah Tradition
This is a tradition of steam bath to a woman in several weeks after giving birth to a child. This is a traditional body cleansing process. The process of bakerah will be started by a special woman who has ability to arrange the process. She will boil a pail of water and while in the process, she will also put several special herbs such as leaves of agati tree (sesbania grandiflora) or leaves of hummingbird tree, lemon grass (cymbopogon nardus), kajuputih oil, and several other herbs into the boiling water. After the water boils, she will prepare a bucket or pail and pour the water and the herbs in side the container. The new mother will be asked to seat on special chair where under it where the bucket is placed. She will be sitting and having steam bath for around one hour. She will repeat it the process for 7 days in a row.



Mapalus
This is a tradition of working together in the farm. Long time ago when modern technology of cultivating was still a dream and rare to be found, people in the highlands of Minahasa especially in Tomohon created a system of working the land togehter called mapalus. Mapalus is a group of male and female farmers who were associated in a system, bounded with their own or the village regulation to cultivate their farm lands. The farmers usually were divided into a timer and the workers. The timer had function to watch the time while working, carrying the drum and hitting the drum or another instrument called tetengkoren. The process starts at the dawn around 04.30 AM by the sound of the drum. As the timer hit drums with special pattern of hitting, the other member of the group would come to the appointed time that could be at a house of one member, at the intersection, at street corner or anywhere possible for the meeting. And then by the guiding of the drum carrier, they would go to one member's farm. They would work as the sun ray started showing up. While working, the worker usually sang songs either with group or repeating one person to the other.

Kumawus
This is a first or second sunday of mourn after funeral. Kumawus derives from kawus means finish. I kawus ola, means just finish it, which means the mourn shall be finished. Kumawus means an activity to finish the mourning and all things or issues regarding to the late person. The other point also is that the left family will not have any more customs debt of those who have gone. Also with kumawus, the family was relieved, comforted and strengthened through meetings, fellowship with even more devotions.

The name of this activity at first was 'muntep remdem' or 'Maso Itang' the meaning 'enter in black'. The point is the family by wearing black clothing entered the worship in the church at 09.00. Another custom in Kumawus is the people will eat on the table covered with banana leaves by hands.


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