Last updated on January 1, 2019
Contributed and posted by ‘The Indonesian Way’, a textbook for the Indonesian language by George Quinn and Uli Kozok.
Interestingly, the phrase tadi malam, which is usually translated “last night” or “yesterday night”, actually refers to an earlier part of the current day, like tadi siang and tadi pagi. The reason for this is that traditionally Indonesians perceived a new day as beginning at sunset, not sunrise as we usually do.
For Indonesians in former times (and to a large extent still today), a new “day” began with malam, and continued with pagi, siang and sore. So in the context of Indonesian culture it is perfectly logical to say tadi malam as if yesterday night were a previous part of the current day.