Nyepi Day on Bali

Nyepi is perhaps the most unique of all festivals celebrated in Bali, the whole island comes to a standstill on this particular day. Visitors to Bali at this time of the year definitely need to be aware of the day of Nyepi, as they will not be able to go anywhere on this day, but rather spend time relaxing around their place of accommodation.

The most interesting part of Nyepi, the day of silence, when Balinese and alike reflect on the past year, for visitors is the visual spectacles of Ogoh-Ogoh (monsters) created by many of the villages throughout Bali to be used as a part of a huge island-wide exorcism on the eve of Nyepi. The youth of the various village banjar (local council areas) take great delight in competing with the neighbouring villages to create the most gruesome and terrifying-looking ogoh-ogoh in the month preceding Nyepi.

Unfortunately this year Denpasar Officials have  banned the parade of these Ogoh Ogoh in fear of rivaling villages starting fights because of the close proximity of local legislative elections with Nyepi celebrations.

 

Such a shame for the different Banyars which take great pride in creating the scariest Ogoh Ogoh and for the kids, who carry their own version of the beasts!!

Oh well we just have to wait until next year to see those colorful scary creations again parading through the streets of Bali.

Selamat Hari Nyepi

The team from Bali Baby Equipment Hire

Tags: baby, bali, Equipment, festivals, Hire, Nyepi, Ogoh Ogoh

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 8:51 am and is filed under Bali News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.