It’s stated there’s never a day in Bali without a ceremony of some kind and should you embody all of the life cycle rites (baby ceremonies, puberty rites, weddings, cremations,Temple festivals), then this adage might be true. ref: Bali Luxury Villas There are definitely certain instances that are “ceremony-heavy” resembling the total moons in April and October and the excessive holy days of Galungan (see below for more info). Balinese religion (called Agama Hindu Dharma) include three primary elements: Hinduism based mostly on what is practiced in India but differing considerably from those traditions, animism (where each residing thing has a soul) and ancestor worship (the Balinese deify their ancestors after a proscribed means of cleansing has been performed).
Temple festivals are held on the anniversary of when the temple in query was consecrated. This may very well be an annual occasion, held on a new or full moon or extra probably every 210 days, primarily based on the wuku system, a fancy calculation of overlapping days of confluence, some being extra “powerful” than others (think of Friday the thirteenth).
An Odalan or temple ceremony often lasts for three days, but larger ones (which happen every 5, 10, 30 or a hundred years) can last for eleven days or longer. ref: Bali Villas The gist of what’s occurring right here is that the Balinese are honoring the deities that rule over the temple by giving them a myriad of offerings, performances of vocal music, dance and gamelan music. They invite them down from their abode on Mount Agung to partake within the activities.
The temple is dressed up in colourful golden garments, the pictures of the deities are taken to the local holy spring to be bathed and dressed of their greatest, shrines are cleaned, performances are rehearsed, committees are fashioned after which the large day arrives. Normally folks take their offerings to the temple in the late afternoon, after the heat of the day has gone, and everyone’s work and faculty obligations are over.
The choices, consisting of fruits, rice desserts and flowers, are introduced in on ladies’s heads and placed at strategic factors around the temple. These are blessed with holy water by the temple Pemangku or priest. The pilgrims then pray, are blessed with and drink holy water and then take the offerings house to share with their families. The gods have taken the sari or essence of the choices, leaving the “leftovers” for the humans to consume. In the evenings, there could be spectacular performances of music and dance by local groups.
Since each village has no less than three main temples (and often many more than that), there’s at all times some form of group religious activity going on. ref: Bali Cheap Villas Aside from the village temple festivals, each family compound’s family temple (mrajan/sanggah) additionally has its ceremony every 210 days.