It was early afternoon on 25 March in Bali, and for the first time in a long time I could hear myself think. There were no scooters zooming by, no noodle sellers peddling their wares, not even the occasional sound of a plane flying overhead.
In their absence, I noticed the buzz of a dragonfly and a frog’s ribbit as I sat quietly on my porch, trying to get into the spirit of Nyepi – the island’s New Year’s Day, or “Silent Day” – when for 24 hours Balinese people stay quietly in their homes and reflect on the year gone by and gear up for the one to come.
Usually, Balinese New Year’s Day is the calm after the storm. On a typical Balinese New Year’s Eve, the island is a riot of noise and colour. For months, locals have worked on building their neighbourhood’s ogoh-ogoh, a huge effigy made from bamboo and papier-mâché in the shape of a demon. On the big day, the effigies are paraded through the streets in theatrical, boisterous ceremonies.
Also, gamelan bands play while Balinese people practise pengrupukan, which at the household level, is a ceremony that involves brushing a burning bundle of dried coconut leaves against the base of every shrine and building to the accompaniment of noisemaking on bamboo tubes and pot lids while shouting for demons to leave. Over time, the New Year’s Eve ceremony has spilled out from households to public parades with bamboo torches on the streets to rid the whole neighbourhood and town of demons.
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Each year, Balinese New Year takes place on a different day as it’s governed by the “Saka” calendar, which is based on the phases of the moon. The Saka dynasty was first founded in 78AD by King Kanishka of India and was said to have been brought to Java by Hindu missionaries and later spread to Bali, which today is the only remaining island in Indonesia with a Hindu majority in a country that’s 90% Muslim.
Celebrations start three days before Nyepi with Melasti, where holy images from temples are taken by procession to the nearest sea, lake, river or spring, where they’re cleansed of any physical or spiritual impurities and people make offerings and pray to their newly purified deities. Two days later, at noon on the eve of Nyepi, tawur agung (pay-offs) of animal sacrifices, raw meat, eggs and liquor are offered to demons along with loud music and noises, which both attract them and then send them away once they’re appeased.
“The practice of getting buta-kala (demons) to leave goes back far in time,” said Garrett Kam, who has been living in South-East Asia for more than 30 years and is the only non-Balinese ritual assistant at Pura Samuan Tiga temple in Bedulu, Gianyar, where he lives. “Every temple ceremony in Bali is preceded by caru (demon-appeasing sacrifices) so that their malevolent desires are satisfied and they become benevolent deities.
Kam continued: “At noon on the eve of Nyepi, such tawur agung or big payoffs occur on a large scale in every village, town, city and district to pay off the demons that accumulate during the year. Every 10 and 100 years, they happen at the island’s most important temples to pay off accumulating demons from the decade and century.”
This year, the festivities were heavily scaled back, reminding Kam of his first Nyepi in Bali in the 1980s.
“Ogoh-ogoh were only allowed to be shown around the banjar (local community) that made them and without parades,” he said. “And while some youth groups protested as they had spent thousands of dollars and many weeks on their ogoh-ogoh, most people understood why the parades were banned.”
One thing, though, remained unchanged. While many people across the world are finding the coronavirus lockdown to be a shock to the system, the Balinese are used to it. Every year on Nyepi, the entire island falls silent.
No-one is allowed to leave their homes where they are meant to spend their day with no fire or light (that means no work and no entertainment). Businesses are closed and even the airport shuts down for 24 hours. Some Balinese also fast, turn off their phones and do not speak except in short whispers. Even dogs and roosters are quieter than usual, according to Kam. The local police patrol the streets and beaches to make sure nobody is flouting the rules.
The silence that this time provides is truly the best way to meditate
The reason they do this is because, according to Balinese beliefs, any demons that might return will think the island is deserted and leave it alone for another year. But the Balinese also use this time to reflect on the past year and set goals for the future.
“The silence that this time provides is truly the best way to meditate,” said Sri Darwiati, a Balinese Hindu who was raised in a village in the island’s Tabanan regency and is now school secretary and a board member at Green School Bali. “I have been celebrating and enjoying Nyepi day for more than 40 years, and as I am getting older, I continue to learn the significance behind the ritual.”
She believes spending time at home with your family, even just for a day, can bring joy, and that taking time to reflect can help make us more productive in the future. For Kam, this is all the more important now because the Balinese generally lead very active lives and are rarely at home. “Nyepi allows a full day for them to reconnect with their families without being distracted by TV and internet,” he said.
With social distancing measures now in place in Bali, following one extra day of Nyepi, which was extended this year due to the coronavirus, the benefits associated with “Silent Day” are stretching further. “Fathers are teaching their sons gamelan music and art. My neighbour is learning to play the ukulele on his own. Mothers are teaching their daughters household skills and to help out at their small kiosks and roadside stalls,” Kam said. “This all means a continuing of traditions not learned in classrooms and increased respect for elders who have more roles to fulfil today.”
Nyepi has also been shown to have a positive impact on the environment, even if it is just for 24 hours. A 2015 study by the Indonesian Agency for Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics found that total suspended particulate (TSP) concentrations decreased by 73-78% in urban areas on the Balinese Day of Silence, while an analysis by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) saw a 33% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on Nyepi Day.
As Darwiati said, this is just from one day and one island. “If we were to start a nationwide event, our impact would be much larger. With an event like this not only would we be giving ourselves a break and some room to breathe, we’d also be giving the environment a break from all the carbon we constantly use.”
With half of the global population on coronavirus lockdown, there’s no better time to learn from a culture where slowing down and switching off has been mandated for centuries – if only for a day at a time.
“Prior to Covid-19, Bali was the only airport in the world that would close down, for 24 hours during the Balinese New Year. This is a big move for an island that relies heavily on tourism but shows the great respect for tradition and slowing down that is so ingrained in Balinese culture,” Darwiati said. “The West can learn to honour the simple things in life – connecting with nature, connecting with family, connecting with ourselves – slowing down, switching off and looking at the stars.”
I took her advice. As soon as dusk fell, I went into the garden and gazed up at the inkiest, most star-filled sky I’d ever seen. There was no electric light or fire in sight. As Kam said, “So much has become lost due to light and noise pollution.” When Nyepi was extended for a day this year, I can’t say I was disappointed. Another day of no work, fire, entertainment or travelling didn’t seem so bad. I decided to keep my laptop closed for another 24 hours.
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