ogoh-ogoh and a day of silence.

Its been a while since my last ogoh-ogoh & nyepi, I cant even remember it and if there wouldn`t be some pics which give proof of it, I`d say it was my first nyepi this year! 

so on thursday evening there was a big parade in the street with the characters built from styrofoam or more traditionally, bamboo and paper. they all represent the evil spirits which must be banished from bali. So there was gamelan-music, shouting and fire in the parade. Its a very special experience to witness such an old tradition, although there are some changes ( of course), so back in the days there were firecrackers and stuff, which they banned because of the balibombs in 2002. Also, they used to burn the ogoh-ogohs at the beach afterwards, to destroy them, and when the last one burned down there was nothing but darkness.

They dont do it anymore ( at least in Kuta/Legian) so they still are standing around in the streets the days after nyepi for the tourists to see.. 

so after we watched the parade we went down to the beach and then slowly nyepi and the day of silence begun.

nyepi`s the day where the island plays dead. the bad spirits are banished from bali and that they dont return the balinese hide in their house, in silence, no motobikes and cars allowed in the street, no walking around, some fast, some meditate..whats so special about it is that its not allowed for EVERYONE, including tourists, to leave the house! I think thats awesome and also very very UNIQUE.

In my case, I was in a friends house, we ate, read, enjoyed being lazy for a whole day, watched a lot of dvds and then, when darkness hit the island we were checking the sky for stars, which were supposed to be brighter since all the electricity was off and there were no disturbing lights..sadly there were a lot of clouds so we didnt see a lot of them.

Still this day / night was beautiful and unique, and I am very happy to be here and experience all of this!

TERIMA KASIH BANYAK!

☾