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BALI TRADITION AND RELIGION
- BALI HOLY DAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES -
THE DAY OF SILENCE
In more than one way, Bali is the exact opposite of the West.
While Westerners usher in the New Year in revelry, the Balinese
greet their own New Year in silence. This is Nyepi Day, the
Balinese day of Silence, which falls on the day following the
dark moon of the spring equinox, and opens a new year of the
Saka Hindu era which began in 78 A.D.
On Nyepi day, which starts with sunrise, don't expect to be able
to do anything. You will have to stay in your hotel. No
traffic is allowed, not only of cars, but also of people, who
have to stay in their individual houses. Light is kept to a
minimum, radio tuned down, and no one works, of course. Even
love making, this ultimate activity of all leisure-timers, is
not supposed to take place, nor even attempted. A whole day
simply filled with the barking of a few dogs, the shrill of
insects and simple long, long quiet day in the calendar of this
hectic island.
Nyepi is a religious event. Bali is a Hindu society, one that
believes in the karmapala principle, according to which the
dynamics of life and of Man's individual fate is set in motion
by "action". Man is in the midst of a Samsara cycle of incarnations,
each of which is determined by the quality of his actions (karma)
in his former existence. His "ideal" is thus to put the system to
rest, i.e., to control one's actions, and thus to subdue one's "demons".
Only in such a way can Man hope to achieve "deliverance" from his
cycles of life (moksa) and eventually merge with the Oneness of the
Void, the Ultimate Silence of Sunya.
The day of Silence is a symbolic replay of these philosophical
principles. At the beginning of the year, the world is "clean".
The previous days, all the effigies of the gods from all the
village temples have been taken to the river in long and colorful
ceremonies.
There they have been bathed by the Neptunus of Balinese lore,
the god Baruna, before being taken back to residence in their
shrines of origin. The day before Nyepi, all villages have also
held a large exorcist ceremony at the main village crossroad, the
meeting place of the demons. And, at night all the demons of the
Bali world were let loose on the roads in a carnival of fantastic
monsters, the Ogoh-ogoh.
The parade is held all over Bali after sunset. All the banjar
neighborhoods and hundreds of youth associations make their own
Ogoh-ogoh monsters. Some are giants from the classical Balinese
lore, while others are guitarists, bikers or even AIDS microbes.
All with fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair, illuminated by torches
and with the accompaniment of the most demonic gametan music (bleganjur)
of the Balinese repertoire. They surge suddenly by the hundreds from
every street, some more "horrible" than the others; each carried on the
shoulder of four to thirty youths, jerking this way or that way so as
to give the impression of a dance, or suddenly turning in a circle,
much to the fascination of the spectators. And, believe it, this is
not a small "procession": it lasts for three to four hours, as if Bali
has an inexhaustible pool of demons. No more than it gods and goddeses
for sure.
Thus, on Silence day, the world is clean and everything starts anew,
with Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the "force" of
the World. Hence the mandatory religious prohibitions of mati lelangon
(no pleasure), mati lelungan (no traffic), mati geni (no fire), and
mati pekaryan (no work).
THE GALUNGAN FESTIVAL
Among the many holidays in the Balinese 210-day calendar, the most
prominent are undoubtedly those of Galungan and Kuningan; the former
on the Wednesday of the Dungulan week and the latter on the Saturday
on the Kuningan week. Due to their frequency - roughly once every seven
Gregorian months - these festivals are not celebrated as national
holidays, but don't try to do anything between Penampahan Galungan
(the day for the slaughter of the pigs that precedes Galungan) and
Manis Galungan, the day following it, or on the Friday preceding Kuningan;
everything is closed. People go back to their village of origin to
present offerings to their ancestors and village temples.
Unlike most Balinese festivals which celebrate the particular anniversary
of a temple, and are therefore scattered across the calendar, Galungan
and Kuningan are all-island holidays: everywhere, temples are all dressed
up, with batik and white or yellow cloth wrapped around their individual
shrines as a sign that they are "occupied," meaning the gods are visiting
their descendants. The ritual involved is a reminder of the strong
ancestor's cult aspect of the Hindu-Balinese religion. When it took
root in Bali, Hinduism, instead of throwing away the older tradition
as Christianity and Islam tended to do, integrated elements of ancestral
beliefs and natural animism into its corpus, the rationale being that
everything and every belief can be interpreted as "ray" or a manifestation
of the "Ultimate Sun" of Surya (Siwa ).
The ancestors do not come before being properly "invited.". They are
expected to come on the Sugihan Jawa day when one makes offerings for
the welfare of the world. The call is made in familiar language: "Mai
jani mulih. Uba yang ngaenang banten. Mai delokin damuh-damuhe," which
means: "Please, come back home for a visit, we have prepared you food,
please come and visit your descendants." This is all the more important
for "dead" souls which have not yet undergone the whole cleansing
process. If the dead is still buried in the cemetery, the soul is
thought to be still hanging around nearby, provisionally entrusted to
the god, the deity Prajapati. Thus it has to be handled with special
care, and given the right punjung offering, lest it wreaks havoc among
the living. But if the soul has been cremated and enshrined in the
family temple, the danger is lessened and the chances are that its
influence will be beneficent. The language will change, though, to
become more formal and religious, and the offering will be different,
too: this time it will be a saji.
The visit of the ancestors is expected to last until Kuningan.
They will have feasted long enough and it will be time for them
to go back to their realm of death. Another injunction will do:
"Mangkin mantuk ke kedituan," which means "Go back over there to
your abode of the dead". The shrines are then undressed and the
temples return to quietness, waiting for another festival.
SARASWATI
This day is devoted to God's Manifestations as Dewi Saraswati,
the beautiful Goddess of Knowledge, Art and Literature. On this
day, books of knowledge's, manuscripts and the Wedas are blessed
and special offerings are made for them.
PAGERWESI
The name literally means, "iron fence", on which day ceremonies
and prayers are held for strong mental and spiritual defense in
well coming the Galungan holiday.
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