NYEPI (THE DAY OF SILENCE)

 

 

 

BOO!

 

 

        No It's not Halloween. It is Nyepi...The biggest Hindu Holy Day. Even though we live on a predominantly Muslim Island, we do have a fairly large amount of Balinese Hindu in the main city area.
        As you know from one of my latest blogs, the Muslim and the Hindu don't always live together in total harmony. Harmony is what Nyepi is all about. The Hindu pray and release the evil in their own spirits the day before Nyepi and then parade these Ogoh Ogoh, paper mache monsters, around the city. This is so their evil spirits will inhabit the Ogoh Ogoh. The following day, Nyepi, is the day of silence. The Balinese sit quietly in their homes; no cooking fires, no electricity being used, no oil lamps or other forms of activities whatsoever. On this day of silence the evil spirits are allowed to do anything they want without the humans interrupting their fun. By doing this the Hindu believe they create harmony so that for the rest of the year they are allowed to live in peace from the interruptions of the evil.
        In Bali, the day of silence is "THE LAW' Even if you are not Hindu you are not allowed to have lights visible from your home. On Our island, if you don't live in a Balinese neighborhood, life goes on as normal. Things can get a bit sticky if you are in a mixed neighborhood. Tensions have been a bit high in our mixed neighborhood since December so we will wait and see what happens tomorrow.
        The following are a few photos of the Ogoh Ogohs parading around the main street.

This man is going around to pick up plastic water bottles and glass to resale as recyclable trash. Today his family will eat well.

The black and white checked sarungs that these men are wearing is to protect them from the evil because the colors symbolize the harmony of the evil and good spirits.

This is a statue of a Hindu priest battling the evil spirits.

Muslim band groups were hired to play music along the parade route in between the Ogoh Ogoh.

We have lived here for 10 years and this is the first time I have seen such a human form of an Ogoh Ogoh. And it's a woman no less.

The smaller children are enlisted to carry the smaller Ogoh Ogoh around the streets on the bamboo platforms.