Balinese Ceremony and Ritual

It is said there is never a day in Bali without a ceremony of some kind and if you include all the life cycle rites (baby ceremonies, puberty rites, weddings, cremations,Temple festivals), then this adage is probably true. There are definitely certain times that are “ceremony-heavy” such as the full moons in April and October and the high holy days of Galungan (see below for more info). Balinese religion (called Agama Hindu Dharma) consist of three primary elements: Hinduism based on what is practiced in India but differing substantially from those traditions, animism (where every living thing has a soul) and ancestor worship (the Balinese deify their ancestors after a proscribed process of cleansing has been done).

Temple festivals are held on the anniversary of when the temple in question was consecrated. This could be an annual event, held on a new or full moon or more likely every 210 days, based on the wuku system, a complex calculation of overlapping days of confluence, some being more “powerful” than others (think of Friday the 13th).

An Odalan or temple ceremony usually lasts for three days, but larger ones (which occur every 5, 10, 30 or 100 years) can last for 11 days or longer. The gist of what is happening here is that the Balinese are honoring the deities that rule over the temple by giving them a myriad of offerings, performances of vocal music, dance and gamelan music. They invite them down from their abode on Mount Agung to partake in the activities.

The temple is dressed up in colorful golden clothes, the images of the deities are taken to the local holy spring to be bathed and dressed in their best, shrines are cleaned, performances are rehearsed, committees are formed and then the big day arrives. Usually people take their offerings to the temple in the late afternoon, after the heat of the day has gone, and everyone's work and school obligations are over.

The offerings, consisting of fruits, rice cakes and flowers, are brought in on women's heads and placed at strategic points around the temple. These are blessed with holy water by the temple Pemangku or priest. The pilgrims then pray, are blessed with and drink holy water and then take the offerings home to share with their families. The gods have taken the sari or essence of the offerings, leaving the “leftovers” for the humans to consume. In the evenings, there could be spectacular performances of music and dance by local groups.

Since every village has at least three major temples (and often many more than that), there is always some kind of community religious activity going on. Aside from the village temple festivals, every household compound's family temple (mrajan/sanggah) also has its ceremony every 210 days.

Aside from the Odalan, there are a dozen or so life and death cycle rites that are performed throughout a child's life:

1. Gedong-gedongan : this is done in the 8th month (Gregorian calendar/7th month Balinese calendar) of pregnancy to ask blessings for an easy birth. The pregnant woman and her husband wade into the river, where eels and small fish are placed face down on her protruding belly to show the baby the right way out!
2. Birth: Only the husband and the midwife/doctor are allowed to hold the placenta or after birth. This is washed and then buried on the right (if the baby is a boy) side of the northern pavilion or left (if a girl). With it are buried a comb, a dance fan, a pen, a book—whatever the family wishes the child will grow up to enjoy.The parents are not allowed to go into the kitchen for three days.
3. Three Days after birth: the parents undergo a simple cleansing ritual so they can go into the kitchen
4. Rorasin: 12 days after the birth the umbilical cord has usually fallen off. This is placed in a special shrine dedicated to Kumara, the Guardian of Babies.
5. 42-day ceremony: Once a baby has reached this age, a rather large ritual is performed for her/him. This is to ensure that her/his development will continue unhindered. One of the things done at this time is that a baby chick and baby duck are brought in to peck off/dust off cooked rice that is on the baby's third eye. This is to show the child how to use her hands and feet as well as her mouth to gather food, as the animals do. She is placed under a cockfighting basket where she grabs items that have previously been placed into a clay pot. It is said that whatever she grabs is her vocation.
6. Three month ceremony: This is also quite a grand ceremony that all the relatives and neighbors are invited to. This marks the first time a child touches the ground for the first time (he is carried everywhere previously). In some villages, this is when the child is “replaced” by a dressed up eggplant or cucumber. The priest sings the praises of the the eggplant so that spirits of chaos that might be lurking around will follow the eggplant when it's thrown out the front door, while the real baby stays protected.
7. Odalan or six months (210 days) ceremony. This is the baby's birthday and will be celebrated ritually every 6 months. But no birthday cakes here!
8. Three odalans is traditionally when the child has her or his hair cut off and head shaved to represent purity.
9. Menek kelih or puberty. Not all castes perform this ceremony. It happens when the girl gets her period and the boy's voice cracks. They are paraded around the village announcing to all that they are now adults (and in the olden days, ready to marry)
10. Tooth filing: In their late teens, Balinese get the top middle teeth filed; this symbolizes the filing away of greed, anger, lust, drunkenness, envy and confusion.
11. Wedding: the ultimate fusion of male and female
12. Death: within death, there are a number of rites. The first is the ritual cleansing of the corpse by the family and the banjar (neighborhood), then comes the burial or the cremation (if the family can afford to cremate right away, they will choose that option) and then the post-crematory purification rites where the soul becomes a deity that shall be worshipped in the family temple. (WWW.BALISPIRIT.COM)

Nyepi….Happy New Year in Bali

The new year in Bali is celebrated with 24 hours of total silence. It is like a miracle on this hustling, bustling Island. But it actually happens. The Balinese day does not start at midnight as in the west. It starts at sunrise and ends 24 hours later, again at sunrise. So at 6 a.m. on Nyepi morning, wherever you are is where you stay for the next 24 hour period. The streets are totally empty, all businesses are closed, and a great silence envelops the island. Hotel guests must stay on their hotel grounds and may not venture out. The ‘pecalang‘, (I have always referred to them as the ‘temple police’ because one of their main jobs is to direct traffic during temple ceremonies, cremations and other busy religious activities) are the only people on the roads and their job during the day is to insure that no one else is out.

As impossible as it sounds, the airport is closed! Only medical evacuations are allowed or, heaven forbid, an emergency landing. Scheduled incoming or outgoing flights are 100% cancelled.

During this quiet day, the truly devout fast and meditate. Lighting fires is not allowed which means that traditional kitchens in compound that normally burn firewood to cook cannot be used. Expats with sensor lights at their homes place tape over the sensors in preparation for the night.

Because Bali wants to take good care of its visiting foreign guests staying with us in hotels, special dispensation is given to hotel staff. They must arrive at their place of work before 6:00 a.m. and also stay on the grounds for 24 hours, but staff is allowed to provide service to guests including making sure they are well fed! Guests may continue to use all of the hotel facilities….after all, just the lack of electricity that night will be enough of a cultural shock for visitors. But everyone is asked to chat quietly and to observe this quiet day with respect.

As evening falls, darkness takes on a whole new meaning! With no electricity ANYWHERE, many visitors are surprised at how deep a darkness can be experienced. Accompanied by total silence (except for the occasional barking of dogs…they never get the message) it is awesome. Hotel guests sip a last cup of coffee or tea and watch the oncoming night. In compounds, families lull their children to sleep and then soon join them for a night of much needed rest. The temple police patrol the streets, rebuking the occasional person who dares to have lights and making sure the villages and streets are dark, empty…and safe.

And then it is morning again! At 6:00 a.m. the island returns to its usual activity, the lights go on, the kitchen fires are lit, workers head for their jobs. But the calmness of the previous 24 hours still is felt. We speak more quietly, we are calm and we are happy to know that Nyepi will come again in a year.

In contrast, the day before Nyepi is one of extraordinary activity! And it is far noisier than any normal day. Villages have been preparing huge papier mache demons, ranging from scary to terrifying in appearance. Firecrackers are heard in the distance. And the Balinese are visiting their family and village temples for prayer. For me, I started the day with prayers at my house temple, then to the crossroads of Ubud for prayer with the entire village of Ubud, next to Pura Desa in Ubud, on to the family temple at Saraswati, then to Pura Desa at Peliatan. Hurrying back to my house to shower and change it was then prayer at my village Pura Desa Temple, a procession to Pura Dalem with all of the villages deities, including the mystical and powerful Barong and then on to the banjar for a last blessing. The entire village participated and at the close of this last ceremony we all returned to our homes for one last ritual. Making huge noises by banging on pots and pans, using a hollow switch to beat the ground, hitting the bamboo kul-kul, we circled the property yelling at the top of our lungs. A lighted torch led the way and finally everyone ended up at the driveway where the torch was allowed to burn out accompanied by the hollow switch and many offerings that had been placed there earlier. Our house was ready for Nyepi.

In Ubud, a huge parade of Ogoh Ogoh, those scary papeir mache demons, started about an hour before nightfall. Each village had done their best to make their Ogoh Ogoh the scariest of all. And each was a spectacular piece of hand made creativity, splendid in size, spectacular in color and totally demonic in appearance. Each of the Ogoh Ogoh needed many strong men to carry it into the village and then to the Ubud crossroads where the Ogoh Ogoh were made to dip and sway and go about in circles. Because one of the demons was so huge, the power lines had to be raised, resulting in a brief electrical outage for the entire area! It was a precursor to the darkness that would be experienced during the Nyepi 24 hour period. At the close of the parade, the Ogah Ogah were taken to a central and safe location and set afire. All those weeks of work, up in flames! And then everyone scurried home.

So why all the noise and activity preceding Nyepi? A central tenet of the Balinese Hindu religion is that of balance. Good is balanced with not-so-good. All cannot be good without some bad as counterbalance. After all, without some bad, everything would be perfect! Impossible! Consequently, just as there are good and helpful deities, there are also many not-so-good spirits lurking about and wanting to make mischief. So at our homes we make all that noise and burn torches to frighten the bad spirits away. The Ogoh Ogoh are intended to do the same…and they are indeed frightful! And finally, Nyepi is quiet and dark so that bad spirits passing through Bali at this time of year and looking for places to make trouble, will believe the Island is deserted and simply move on.

To maintain the balance, the Balinese revere the deities who protect them and the Island and respectfully acknowledge the existence of the bad spirits, albeit by trying to frighten them away…and then we all quietly settle down for 24 hours until they have moved on.

And Nyepi provides that special quiet time when each of us can introspectively examine ourselves, ask forgiveness for past bad behavior, think about how to be a better person in the coming year, and ask for guidance to find the ‘right way’.