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 month-these festival 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 precede Galungan) and Manis Galungan, the day following it, or on Friday preceding Kuningan ; everything is closed. People go back to their village of origin to present offering to their ancestor 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 black 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 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. Suba iyang 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 the last until Kuningan. They will have feasted long enough and it will be time for them to go back 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 ate then undressed and temples return to quietness, waiting for another festival.

So, if you happen to be in Bali for one of these two festival, either Nyepi or Galungan, don’t miss a visit the villages.

THE DAY OF SILENCE ( NYEPI DAY )

New Year’s day is perhaps the oddest day in Bali. On this day, throughout the island, silence is observed and inactivity reigns supreme. Also called Nyepi Day, the Balinese Day of Silence, New Year’s day fall 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 turned down, and no one works, of course.

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 demons of the Bali world were let loose on the roads in a carnival of fantastic monster, the Ogoh-ogoh.

The parade is held over Bali after sunset. All the Banjar neighborhoods and hundreds of youth associations make their own Ogoh-ogoh monster. Some are giants from the classical Balinese lore, while other are guitarists, biker or even AIDS microbes. All with fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair, illuminated by torches and with the accompaniment of the most demonic gamelan music (bleganjur) of the Balines repertoire. They surge suddenly by 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 dance, or suddenly turning in a circle, much to the fascination of the spectators.

And, believe it, this is not small “procession” : it last for three to four hour, as if Bali has an inexhaustible pool of demon. No more than it gods and goddeses for sure.

Thus, on silences day, the world is clean and everything starts new, with Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the “force” of the World. Hence the mandatory religious rohibitions of mati lelangon (no pleasure), mati lelungan (no traffic), mati geni (no fire), and mati pekaryan (no work).

TRADITIONAL VILLAGES AND CUSTOMS

The soul of Bali lies in its villages which function as important religious and social institutions. The layout of a typical Balinese village follows a set pattern that achieves harmony between man and nature.

In particular, spatial arrangement of the components of a village such as temples, rice fields and cemeteries are made with reference to the two important point of kaja (or mountain ward) and kelod (or sea ward).

The Balinese desa (village) is typically host to a set of three villages temples.

Called the kahyangan tiga, these three temples are specifically defined as to function and location. The pura puseh or “temple of origin” lies facing kaja (or mountain ward), where the tutelary gods of the village and its founders are worshipped. Facing kelod (or se ward) stands pura dalem, where the forces of death and the unpurified soul are worshipped, and nearby which lies the cemetery. In between the pura puseh and pura dalem lies the pura desa, where the “Lord of the territory” (sane nruwenang jagad) is worshipped and where the meetings of the village assembly and the rituals of fertility are held. Clustered around the pura desa are groupings of houses or banjar.

The temples are at the heart of Balinese life. They have their anniversary every 210 days, when the gods come down for visit, during which they are welcomed by dance, “feted” with offerings and provided with a symbolic resting place. It is when the village comes to life, and color takes it over.

Beside the temple anniversaries, Bali has two sets of island-wide festivals which correspond to the “new years” of the two Balinese calendars : The Nyepi of the lunar-solar Saka year and The Galungan of the 210-day Pawukon calendar.