Imagine having Christmas twice a year! Plus Easter every month, and prayers each morning at home and again at work. Then you begin to get the busy worship & ceremony schedule of the Balinese.
Galungan is their Christmas like occasion. They prepare a long bamboo with curved tip, covered in palm leaves with rice & intricate woven palm frond art pieces hung from it. This is displayed in front of their family compound sort of like a Christmas tree in the front window. The straight part symbolizes strength and the curved part symbolizes respect.
On Galungan morning the families go to the community temple, the women toting the day's feast on their heads. This is also an occasion to dress-up in their best traditional outfits.
Once inside the temple the food is blessed and sprinkled with holy water by the high priest or priestess. This process is repeated to bless each person. They then gather their offering/feast and proceed back home.
In the afternoon the children gather in small performance troops and go house to house performing a Barong dance & gonging similar to Chinese Lion Dance. They are rewarded with small amounts of money. So this is like Trick or Treat and Carolling combined.
[Photos to follow at later time]
Other Monthly lunar Ceremonies at local temples are occasions for villagers to parade to & from the temple with their offerings & musical instruments playing.
1 comment:
Wow! I love the pictures. That must be amazing to experience all their festivities. It looks like fun. Looks like a very rich culture.
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