Every religion or culture all over the world has their
own way to define and celebrate their new year. For example,
the Chinese have the Imlek year and to celebrate it, have,
as they called it in their own language, "Gong Xi Fat
Choy". The Moslem societies have their Muharam year,
and any of the people over the world using the Gregorian
calendar, celebrate the New Year on January 1st.
The same thing also occurs in Bali, however the Balinese
use many different calendar systems. They have adopted the
Gregorian calendar for business and government purposes.
But for the endless procession of holy days, temple anniversaries,
celebrations, sacred dances, building houses, wedding ceremonies,
death and cremation processes and other activities that
define Balinese life, they have two calendar systems. The
first is the Pawukon (from the word Wuku which means week)
and Sasih (which is means month). Wuku consists of 30 items
starting from Sinta, the first Wuku and end up with the
Watugunung the last one. The Pawukon, a 210-day ritual calendar
brought over from Java in the 14th century, is a complex
cycle of numerological conjunctions that provides the basic
schedule for ritual activities on Bali. Sasih, a parallel
system of Indian origin, is a twelve month lunar calendar
that starts with the vernal equinox and is equally important
in determining when to pay respect to the Gods.
Westerners open the New Year in revelry, however, in contrast,
the Balinese open their New Year in silence. This is called
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.
Nyepi is a day to make and keep the balance of nature.
It is based on the story of when King Kaniska I of India
was chosen in 78 A.D. The King was famous for his wisdom
and tolerance for the Hinduism and Buddhism societies. In
that age, Aji Saka did Dharma Yatra (the missionary tour
to promote and spread Hinduism) to Indonesia and introduce
the Saka year.
The lead upto Nyepi day is as follows:
- Melasti or Mekiyis or Melis (three days before Nyepi)
Melasti is meant to clean the pratima or arca or pralingga
(statue), with symbols that help to concentrate the mind
in order to become closer to God. The ceremony is aimed
to clean all nature and its content, and also to take
the Amerta (the source for eternal life) from the ocean
or other water resources (ie lake, river, etc). Three
days before Nyepi, all the effigies of the Gods from all
the village temples are taken to the river in long and
colourful ceremonies. There, they have are bathed by the
Neptune of the Balinese Lord, the God Baruna, before being
taken back home to their shrines.
- Tawur Kesanga (the day before Nyepi)
Exactly one day before Nyepi, all villages in Bali hold
a large exorcism ceremony at the main village cross road,
the meeting place of demons. They usually make Ogoh-ogoh
(the fantastic monsters or evil spirits or the Butha Kala
made of bamboo) for carnival purposes. The Ogoh-ogoh monsters
symbolize the evil spirits surrounding our environment
which have to be got rid of from our lives . The carnivals
themselves are held all over Bali following sunset. Bleganjur,
a Balinese gamelan music accompanies the procession. Some
are giants taken from classical Balinese lore. All have
fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated
by torches.The procession is usually organised by the
Seka Teruna, the youth organisation of Banjar. When Ogoh-ogoh
is being played by the Seka Teruna, everyone enjoys the
carnival. In order to make a harmonic relation between
human being and God, human and human, and human and their
environments, Tawur Kesanga is performed in every level
of society, from the people's house. In the evening, the
Hindus celebrating Ngerupuk, start making noises and light
burning torches and set fire to the Ogoh-ogoh in order
to get the Bhuta Kala, evil spirits, out of our lives.
- Nyepi
On Nyepi day itself, every street is quiet - there are
nobody doing their normal daily activities. There is usually
Pecalangs (traditional Balinese security man) who controls
and checks for street security. Pecalang wear a black
uniform and a Udeng or Destar (a Balinese traditional
"hat" that is usually used in ceremony). The
Pecalangs main task is not only to control the security
of the street but also to stop any activities that disturb
Nyepi. No traffic is allowed, not only cars but also people,
who have to stay in their own houses. Light is kept to
a minimum or not at all, the radio or TV is turned down
and, of course, no one works. Even love making, this ultimate
activity of all leisure times, is not supposed to take
place, nor even attempted. The whole day is simply filled
with the barking of a few dogs, the shrill of insect and
is a simple long quiet day in the calendar of this otherwise
hectic island. On Nyepi the world expected to be clean
and everything starts anew, with Man showing his symbolic
control over himself and the "force" of the
World, hence the mandatory religious control.
- Ngembak Geni (the day after Nyepi)
Ngembak is the day when Catur Berata Penyepian is over
and Hindus societies usually visit to forgive each other
and doing the Dharma Canthi. Dharma Canthi are activities
of reading Sloka, Kekidung, Kekawin, etc.(ancient scripts
containing songs and lyrics).
From the religious and philosophy point of view,
Nyepi
is meant to be a day of self introspection to
decide on
values, eg humanity, love, patience, kindness,
etc., that
should kept forever. Balinese Hindus have many
kind of celebrations
(some sacred days) but Nyepi is, perhaps the most
important
of the island's religious days and the
prohibitions are
taken seriously, particularly in villages outside
of Bali's
southern tourist belt. Hotels are exempt from
Nyepi's rigorous
practices but streets outside will be closed to
both pedestrians
and vehicles (except for airport shuttles or
emergency vehicles)
and village wardens (Pecalang) will be posted to
keep people
off the beach. So wherever you happen to be
staying on Nyepi Day in Bali, this will be a good day to spend indoors.
Indeed
Nyepi day has made Bali a unique island.
