The best time to be in Bali
BALI — We were stuck in our hotel in Bali for 24 hours. No, this wasn’t a lockdown during the pandemic. It was the day of Nyepi, which fell on March 11 this year, the “Day of Silence” commemorated every Saka New Year based on the Balinese calendar. Practiced since 78 AD, this ancient ritual is meant to help cleanse the island of demons and start the next year afresh. It’s one of their most important religious observances and if you have been here before, you know how devoted the Balinese can get. Even the airport is closed, with no flights arriving or departing. Practically the whole island shuts down, with no public transport or mobile phone signals.
Nyepi embodies the Balinese philosophy of life—Tri Hita Karana—where the human world, the spirit realm and nature align in harmony. It’s a day reserved for reflection and meditation, so anything that interferes with that purpose is restricted—no ignition of fires, lights kept low, no working, no entertainment or pleasure, no traveling. For some, there’s even no talking or eating. As a result, the streets are empty and quiet, with few signs of activity seen even inside homes. The only people to be seen outdoors are the pecalang, or Nyepi police, who patrol the streets to enforce the prohibitions.
We were actually reluctant to plan our trip at this time, but the various related events before and after Nyepi were too tempting to pass up and it would be an experience that we never had on previous visits, nor in any other place, for that matter.
“It’s an incredible time to be in Bali,” our driver Komang (the name for the third-born, just as Wayan is for the firstborn and Made for the second) reassured us upon picking us up at the airport. We arrived too late for some of the rituals: The Melasti, performed three to four days before Nyepi in several puras or temples by the sea, is meant to purify sacred objects belonging to several temples. It’s also an occasion to collect holy water from the sea. The Bhuta Yajna ritual, on the other hand, vanquishes the negative elements to create a balance with God, mankind and nature, aside from appeasing Batara Kala through the offering of live animal sacrifice.
Separate from Nyepi, occurring twice a year, is the Galungan ceremony, which happened to coincide with the pre-Nyepi rituals and we luckily caught the tail end of the 10-day commemoration of dharma over adharma, the triumph of virtue over evil. It marks the time when ancestral spirits of deceased relatives return to visit their former homes and the Balinese must be hospitable to them through prayers and offerings.
The streets are filled with beautiful penjors—curved bamboo poles that go up to 10 meters, crafted by families and communities who work on them together, using coconut leaves, fruits and flowers. What we thought were just décor are actually of profound religious significance, with the curved shape representing a sacred mountain and the midsection Sanggah Cucuk housing offerings to bring prosperity and safety.
On the last day of Galungan, called Kuningan, when ancestors and the gods will return to their realm, culminating rituals reach a peak spiritual level, which we witnessed at the Pura Desa temple in Ubud, where the altars blossomed with decorations as priests and devotees presented their offerings with prayers of thanksgiving.
The next day, it was the eve of Nyepi, which was yet another important celebration. At sunset, house compounds came alive with the Pengrupukan ceremony of banging pots, pans and bamboo tubes along with the burning of dried coconut leaf torches to drive away evil spirits.
Weeks before the Pengrupukan, villages and communities started creating ogoh-ogoh, bigger-than-life statues representing malevolent spirits and characters from Hindu mythology. They are so elaborately fashioned out of richly painted bamboo, cloth, tinsel and other materials, as we witnessed in a soccer field in Ubud, where some of these ghastly figures were being given finishing touches. It’s really a community endeavor and even children participate, making their own mini versions, which are mounted on bamboo poles to be carried, bayanihan-style during the Tawur Kesanga parade around town, which happens on the eve before Nyepi.
We positioned ourselves by the Ubud Palace, where an emcee annotated the parade. The ogoh-ogohs were quite awesome, from winged creatures to ghoulish, naked women straight out of a horror film. The energy was tremendous, as participants holding on to the bamboo mounts vigorously shake the living daylights out of the giant statues to the music created by marching musicians.
The ogoh-ogohs were such works of art that it was a pity knowing they would end up in the cemetery to be burned in a final purging. The whole experience was quite overwhelming, watching them jumping, shaking and shouting with wild abandon, as they carried the demon creations to their ultimate destruction in a joyous conflagration.
It was a catharsis of sorts, even for us, a last “hurrah” before Nyepi when the whole island kept still and quiet. It was a chance to unplug from all the gadgets and their attendant noise and distractions, making the following dawn a truly meaningful moment to start anew.
New Year’s Day or Ngembak Geni (Relighting the Fire) is made even more poignant as families and friends gather to ask for forgiveness from one another as they perform religious rituals together. What could be a better way to start the year, and for us, the best way to end our holiday.