is tomorrow! It is the end of the old year and the start of the new year according to the Balinese calendar. I think 1944 is ending and 1945 begins tomorrow.
Today the temples are full of people and offerings and dances and priests and prayers. Tonight the ogoh ogoh will "walk" the streets, scaring the demons away from Bali and tomorrow we will all be silent, stay in our homes and keep the lights and internet off from 6am until 6am the following day. The dark island is invisible to the bad spirits and if we all keep it that way, they will pass over and should not be able to find us for another year. This is a very serious holiday for the Balinese and everyone is expected to follow the customs. The island of Nusa Pendida will have all electricity cut off at 6am tomorrow, on Bali internet and cable TV will be blocked for 24 hours and the toll road to the airport is closed for 36-hours. I've heard that a lot of tourists get caught unaware and find themselves with no transportation to get to wherever they are supposed to be going.
In about 30 minutes the first ogoh ogoh should start to pass our house (the road in front of our house has been blocked off since about 9am). For a couple weeks we've been watching them morph from enormous blobs to rather terrifying forms in the temples and on many street corners and are very eager to see them walk by tonight.
We are told that tomorrow night, when all the lights are off (despite the small village feel, light pollution is pretty bad here) we will see fireflies in Payangan.
Below are a few of the ogoh ogoh we've seen in the last couple days:
Today the temples are full of people and offerings and dances and priests and prayers. Tonight the ogoh ogoh will "walk" the streets, scaring the demons away from Bali and tomorrow we will all be silent, stay in our homes and keep the lights and internet off from 6am until 6am the following day. The dark island is invisible to the bad spirits and if we all keep it that way, they will pass over and should not be able to find us for another year. This is a very serious holiday for the Balinese and everyone is expected to follow the customs. The island of Nusa Pendida will have all electricity cut off at 6am tomorrow, on Bali internet and cable TV will be blocked for 24 hours and the toll road to the airport is closed for 36-hours. I've heard that a lot of tourists get caught unaware and find themselves with no transportation to get to wherever they are supposed to be going.
In about 30 minutes the first ogoh ogoh should start to pass our house (the road in front of our house has been blocked off since about 9am). For a couple weeks we've been watching them morph from enormous blobs to rather terrifying forms in the temples and on many street corners and are very eager to see them walk by tonight.
We are told that tomorrow night, when all the lights are off (despite the small village feel, light pollution is pretty bad here) we will see fireflies in Payangan.
Below are a few of the ogoh ogoh we've seen in the last couple days:
Later on the 21st:
Here's a P.S. I think all the neighbors are worrying about us eating on Nyepi. I'm a little unclear on if it's okay or not to cook tomorrow (I've been told I can as long as I don't make much noise with the pots, but I'm worried about the gas flame). People keep bringing us food. Here are a bunch of rice snacks, krupuk, peanuts, salty duck eggs and sambal that we have been gifted:
Here's a P.S. I think all the neighbors are worrying about us eating on Nyepi. I'm a little unclear on if it's okay or not to cook tomorrow (I've been told I can as long as I don't make much noise with the pots, but I'm worried about the gas flame). People keep bringing us food. Here are a bunch of rice snacks, krupuk, peanuts, salty duck eggs and sambal that we have been gifted: