|
|
|||||||||||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
Balinese Days of Celebration GALUNGAN & KUNINGAN Nyepi is the acknowledged New Year feast of the solar-lunar year, but the Balinese celebrate another "new year" in the great holiday of galungan, when the ancestral spirits come down to earth to dwell again in the homes of their descendants. The ancestors supposedly arrive five days before the day of galungan, receive many offerings, and go back to heaven after ten days, five days before kuningan, the feast of all souls. Every home and all implements were provided with offerings for galungan, the old utensils renewed and the baskets washed. On all the roads, at the gate of every home, tall penjors were erected, meant perhaps to be seen from the summits of the mountains where the gods dwell, together with a little bamboo altar from which hung a lamak one of those beautiful mosaics on long strips of palm-leaf. Everybody wore new clothes and the whole of Bali went out for a great national picnic. Everywhere there were women with offerings on their heads and many old men dressed for the occasion. Ten days after galungan came the day kuningan , when new offerings and new lamaks were made and coconut husks were burned in front of every gate. This was (still is-"Management") the date of the temple feast of Tirta Empul , the sacred baths near Tampaksiring, and all morning people bathed unashamed in the purifying waters, men on one side, women on the other, after leaving an offering for the deity of the spring.
Miguel Covarrubias For transportation and sightseeing around Bali, please contact Front Desk, extension # 100.- Management.
|
|
|
|
