Nyepi - When Bali comes to a standstill

Hi everyone, Janet here...with a quick post about Nyepi, a holiday we celebrated on Saturday. Nyepi is the Balinese new year, and this year we welcomed the year 1933 according to the Saka calendar, one of two Hindu Balinese calendars observed. The holiday consists of a few different components... culminating in Nyepi, a “day of silence”, observed by everyone on the island, including us.

The day before Nyepi, the Balinese make large evil-like monster effigies made from paper-mache and bamboo, named ogoh ogohs. They symbolize the evil spirits we encounter in life. The purpose of the ogoh ogohs is to invite the evil spirits out from where ever they are hiding to inhabit the monsters. Here's Emmet with an ogoh ogoh in Ubud.

From Ogoh Ogoh

On the eve before Nyepi the monsters are paraded through the streets (some are so large they take 20 men to carry). In the early evening villagers meet at local crossroads displaying their ogoh ogohs. Two at a time the effigies meet and fight at the intersections (where many evil spirit hangs out and cause accidents), while the locals play loud gongs and cymbals or hold burning torches.

From Ogoh Ogoh

The next day, starting at 6am, the entire island of Bali shuts down. Anything that is considered to inhibit this day of contemplation is forbidden. Literally. No one is allowed on the streets, the airport closes, hotels are in lock-down mode, and the cable tv network switches off. No one is allowed to travel anywhere for any reason. The idea is that after drawing out the evil spirits with the celebrations of the night before, everyone stays in their house and 'hides', and the spirits are tricked into thinking everyone has left the island, and leave themselves.

Traditional Balinese will fast and have a day of silence, meditation and self-reflection. No electricity, no working, and no lights (or very low). The rest of us bules (foreigners) basically hang out at home and keep quiet (we watched a few movies, etc). If this minimum observance isn’t followed, a visit from the local ‘pecalang’ (security) will remind you to turn off your lights and stay in your family compound.

On Thursday of this week the twins had a Nyepi ceremony at school, and afterwards we decided to photograph every ogoh ogoh we saw on our drive from the Green School to our home. We saw 24 in total. Click on the arrows on the photo below to nagivate through a slideshow of ogoh ogohs! If you click on the play button it will take you to another page with the slideshow.