Hello everybody
today is the Balinese New Year also known as Nyepi.
It is a day of SILENCE, nobody (not even tourists are allowed outside, although they have special dispensation to let them go outside of the hotel room & stay within the grounds of the hotel, but they must not create too much noise)can go outside, there should be no cooking, fire or lights, from 6:00am until 6:00 am the following day)
Infact there should be no internet, but they have had to capitulate as it would be a very difficult thing to control, although there is NO TV or Radio.

The only people allowed outside are the local police force (Pecalang) who have the power to arrest & detain anyone caught wandering about, & if the people who try & get caught become too insensitive about why they are not allowed outside, they can & are deported the very next day when the airport closes,, yes that's right the airport closes for the day too, only a handful of staff there in case of emergency landings. Hospitals have skeleton staff and emergency vehicles available for well emergencies.

It all starts the day before Nyepi, where Balinees have the biggest party of the year, making as much noise as possible, going around their compound, local area, banging on pots & pans with big sticks, the idea or this is to try & wake up the evil spirits that are sleeping, the party finally accumulates in the OGA OGA parade in each area, there are effigies of all sorts of spirit demons/gods & other things, where at the end the oga oga are supposed to be burned & turned into ashes.

The reason for today being quiet is that yesterday as much noise as possible was made to wake up the evil spirits, today those evil spirits are wandering around looking for somebody to possess, with everybody inside not making any noise, then those spirits cannot find anyone, so they go back to sleep for another year.
That is a very simplistic explanation, there are more meaningful & religious reasons too long to go into now.

Suffice it to say, HAPPY NEW YEAR TO BALI

Have a great day wherever in the world you are from Wayan in totally silent, Bali

Happy New year then, Wayan. Wishing you happiness, good health and prosperity!
Do the Balinese also make their new year resolutions?

well sort of what they do is: Yesterday they go all around visiting friends neighbors an generally all over the place as part of the wake up celebrations,, during that visit they apologise to their friends, family, neighbors or anyone they meet for any wrong doings they may have done to them. Then they do a ceremony to the spirits to say the same things.


Today (new years silence day) is spent using the silence & fasting for reflecting & meditating on what one did in the past year, and what one is going to do in the up coming year, so it is a sort of new years resolution really but not one for the meanial things in life (like giving up smoking for 4 days), but more spiritual things to improve your life for doing good things ready for the next steps towards Nirvana.

Happy New Year to you!

Happy and Healthy New Year Wayan

Happy Belated New Year
i realy must go to Bali someday instead of being in the cold in england

Or being cold in Norway? It's the 2nd half of March, and we had -21 C this morning, and there is still meter high snow everywhere. Even here up north we are used to have spring at this time of year. In a week we change to DST, which is called 'summer time' here. Go figure!

Is it Nyepi Day in Bali a Bali Day of Silence? And it is the celebration of only Balinese people or is it belong to any other rituals?