Bali Holidays: Nyepi

Nyepi itself is a day of complete rest which follows the actual ceremony of purification. No fires, no work, no cooking and no sexual intercourse are permitted on that day. For this reason the days immediately prior to Njepi are occupied with busy preparations for the festival. Altars and stagings are erected, food is prepared to last through the festival, and melis processions to take the spirits of the gods to the sea for purification and cleansing are held. The great purification, the metjaru, takes place on the day before Nyepi. On this clay cockfighting is permitted, for the blood spilt acts as a sacrifice to divert the evil spirits and preserve the land. This provides an opportunity for a little gambling and the dead roosters are taken home and cooked for Njepi. Before sundown the evil spirits are attracted to the nietjaru which includes a great offering before the altars of food of all sorts, strong liquor, money, household goods, samples of every seed and fruit growing on the island, and samples of the flesh of every wild and domestic animal. These offerings are all arranged in the shape of an eight-pointed star aligned with the Balinese cardinal points. Brahmanic priests are employed to carry out the mystic rites by chanting magic formulae, gesturing and bell ringing. After luring all the evil spirits to the offering by this means they are then thrown out by the curses put on them by the priests and by continued noise front kulkuls, drums, gongs and tin cans, and by the shouting and yelling of the people. The noise continues far into the night until it is felt that all devils have been driven out. Njepi the following day is strictly observed in most villages where traffic comes to a standstill and villagers remain in their houses. Even in Denpasar itself, although people may visit and there may be some games organised for the amusement of young people, observance of Njepi is very strict.
The Balinese celebrate another very important holy day called Galunggan when the ancestral spirits make an 'annual' pilgrimage to earth to reinhabit the homes of their descendants. This is followed ten days later by the feast of all souls, Kuninggan. These festivals are celebrated with offerings of food, processions and music in a manner similar to the temple festivals and at the same interval of ato days. At Galunggan the streets and houses are decorated with lamaks and pendjors, made from various coloured palm leaves and bamboo. The barongs are allowed to roam and dance in the streets of the villages accompanied by orchestral music. The barongs are mythical animals in the form of a Chinese lion with long hair and snapping jaws, animated by two men, one at the head and one at the tail, which are the central attraction of the Barong Dance. described in a later chapter. Kuninggan corresponds with the temple feast of Tirta Empul, the sacred baths near Tatnpaksiring, where people bathe in the purifying waters of the holy spring which emanates from spouts set in figures carved in the walls of the public baths. On the following day a big celebration takes place at Sakenan temple on Turtle Island just off the coast at Sanur.