Hey guys, today I want to tell you something about a very important day in the Balinese culture. I will tell you something about “Nyepi” or how we called it “silent day”. Nyepi is the biggest hindu holiday and the first day of a new year after the hindu calender. So it’s the Balinese New Year. At this day the whole island is silent, nobody is allowed to leave the house or to work and you’re not allowed to use electricity. Even the airport is out of operation. The only people you can see on the streets are “religion-policemen” who controle whether everyone follow the rules. The meaning of Nyepi is to show demons and evel spirits that no one is in Bali so they move on.
One day before Nyepi there is a special day, too. This day is called Tawur Kesanga. On this day there are a lot of ceremonies and parades all over Bali, where they walk around with Ogoh-Ogoh dolls and burn them after that. The Ogoh-Ogho dolls symbolize the evil spirits. So that means that they burn the evil spirits to have a new lucky year.
For me this day was very interesting. It was nice to see that everyone followed the rules and just relaxed a day and had time to think about himself and just see the special in small things. I think to have this time to think about yourself and other things you never think about is very important in our busy lifes. I enjoyed this day but I have to say too, that 1 silent day is enough for me. More than one day would bore me :).