Rara's Moving Rain Ritual

Overview

Rara's Moving Rain Ritual refers to Indonesian weather shaman Rara Isti Wulandari performing a ritual to ward off heavy rain at the Mandalika International Street Circuit in Lombok, Indonesia before an upcoming MotoGP race. The rain eventually subsided, leading social media users to joke that Rara's ritual worked.

Background

On March 20th, 2022, the MotoGP race was scheduled to be held at Mandalika International Street Circuit, including races from the Moto3 and Moto2 classes. The race was scheduled for 3:00 P.M. local time.^[1] Thirty minutes before the race, heavy rain affected the stadium. according to MotoGP official Twitter account^[2] (shown below).

Hours later, the rain hadn't stopped. Shaman Rara Isti Wulandari took to the track to perform a ritual to move the rain somewhere else. The clip of her doing the ritual was uploaded by the MotoGP Twitter account,^[3] where it received more than 128,200 likes and 50,600 retweets in two days. A few hours later, the MotoGP official Twitter^[4] replied to their original tweet claiming that Rara's performance worked and stopped the rain. It received more than 44,200 likes and 13,200 retweets (shown below). The races took place as planned.

Online Reactions

Later that day, Rara's performance grew popular among Indonesian Speakers. For example, Facebook^[5] page "Shitmeme Untuk Pemersatu Bangsa" uploaded Wojak Comics about people surprised that Rara's ritual worked. The post received more than 2,800 reactions and 765 shares (shown below, left). On the same day, Facebook^[6] page "JoJo Bizzare Adventure Indonesia" uploaded a meme about it. It received more than 1,200 reactions and 353 shares (shown below, right).

Also on March 20th, Twitter^[7] user @marufmuttaqin uploaded a tweet making fun of Rara by showing the BMKG (Indonesian weather, climatology, meteorology and geophysical service) weather forecast and the rain still happening after Rara began her dance. The tweet received more than 34,500 likes and 5,700 retweets (shown below).

Some social media users compared Rara with the character Hina Amano, who can control the weather, from Makoto Shinkai 2019 film Tenki no Ko (Eng. Weathering with You). For example Facebook^[8] user Mus uploaded a video of Rara's performance that added the film's song "Grand Escape" by Radwimps. The video received more than 800 reactions and 2,000 shares (shown below, left). On the next day, Facebook^[9] user Moch Rizki Firmansyah uploaded a comparison video between a scene from the film and Rara's performance. The video received more than 660 reactions and 2,500 shares (shown below, right).

On March 20th, 2022, Facebook^[10] user Candra Dwiyanto uploaded Fan Art of Rara Isti Wulandari. The post received more than 2,600 reactions and 1,800 shares (shown below).

Search Interest

External References