Nyepi - Balinese Day of Silence

Mar 19th 2006

Nyepi - Balinese Day of Silence

Nyepi
Balinese open their New Year in silence. This is called Nyepi Day, the Balinese day of Silence, which falls on the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox, and opens a new year of the Saka Hindu era.  Nyepi is held to purify the whole island. This is a day with NO TRAFFIC and ACTIVITIES ALLOWED plus LIMITED LIGHTS & SOUNDS. There will be NO ARRIVAL and DEPARTURE on this day (land, sea & air) - starts from 00.00 AM local time, up to 00.00 AM the next morning. In house guests are only permitted doing limited activities within the hotel premises. 

The lead up to Nyepi day is as follows:

Melasti (3 days before Nyepi)
Melasti is meant to clean the arca or pralingga (statue), with symbols that help to concentrate the mind in order to become closer to God. The ceremony is aimed to clean all nature and its content and also to take the Amerta (the source of eternal life) from the ocean or the water resources (i.e. lake, river, etc). Three days before Nyepi, all the effigies of the Gods from the entire village temples are taken to the river in long and colorful ceremonies. There, they were bathed by the God Baruna (Balinese God of Water/Ocean), before being taken back home to their shrines.

Tawur Kesanga (1 day before Nyepi)
One day before Nyepi, All villages in Bali hold a large exorcism ceremony at the main village cross road, the meeting place of demons. They usually make Ogoh-ogoh (the monster or evil spirit made of Bamboo) for carnival purposes, most of them have fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair and are illuminated by torches. The ogoh-ogoh monsters symbolize the evil spirits surrounding our environment, which have to be got rid off our lives. The carnival themselves are held all over Bali following sunset. Bleganjur, a Balinese traditional music accompanies the procession. Tawur Kesanga is performed in every level of society. In the evening, they will start making noises and light burning torches, then burn the Ogoh-ogoh in order to get the evil spirits out of our lives.

Nyepi
on Nyepi day itself, every street is quiet - there are nobody doing their normal activities. There is usually Pecalangs (traditional Balinese security man) who controls and checks for street security and to stop any activities that disturb Nyepi. They wear black uniform and traditional Balinese "hat". No traffic is allowed, not only cars but also airplane, boats and people will have to stay in their own houses. Light is kept to a minimum or not at all, the radio or TV is turned down and no one works. On Nyepi the world expected to be clean and everything starts anew with Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the "force" of the world, hence the mandatory religious control.

Ngembak Geni (1 day after Nyepi)
Ngembak is the day when Catur Berata Penyepian is over and Balinese usually visiting their friends & relatives to forgive each other and doing the Dharma Canthi. Dharma Canthi are activities of reading Sloka, Kekidung, Kekawin, etc (ancient Balinese Hindu scripts containing songs and lyrics)

From the religious and philosophy point of view, Nyepi is meant to be a day of self introspection to decide on values, e.g. Humanity, love, patience, kindness, etc., that should kept forever. Balinese Hindus have much kind of celebrations but Nyepi is perhaps the most important one and the prohibitions are taken seriously.