Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
Our travel expert offers tips on a Balinese holiday, flying with hamsters and car-rental insurance.
Mar 23, 2000 | We plan to be in Bali in late March and early April and are wondering if we'll be there for Bali's Hindu New Year, when everything shuts down for 24 hours or so. Can you help us with this?
The observance you're referring to is called Nyepi. The next one is April 4 -- and you'll no doubt have a memorable time. I once stumbled onto Nyepi in Ubud, tipped that something was about to happen by the bamboo cannons going off constantly in the days before the actual holiday. The night before, there was a big parade with local teenagers spitting fire, plus feasts and other processions.
Most visitors take this interruption in stride, but if you think you can't handle it, it's easy enough to take a side trip to one of the other islands for a few days. Travelers may want to avoid the holiday, though, if their itinerary calls for them to go through the airport in Denpasar that day.
The Bali Update newsletter earlier this year ran this notice: "The Ngurah Rai International Airport will be closed during the celebration of the Bali Hindu New Year 'Nyepi' which falls this year on April 4. According to a circular letter from the governor of Bali, in strict conformance with observance of Bali's day of silence, airlines will not be allowed to pick up or disembark domestic or international passengers on that date.
"Nyepi is a day marked by absolute quiet on the island. On this day of reflection, which marks the Hindu New Year, all traffic is banned from the streets. Bali appears deserted on this single day of the year when people do not venture outside the walls of their homes and refrain from lighting fires and electrical lamps. Hotels guests are required to confine their activities to hotel grounds. In the past, passengers departing or arriving at the Bali airport on Nyepi day were granted special license to travel the roads directly between the airport and the hotel.
"Many complaints that tour operators were abusing that permit system has brought about the new and much stricter application of the rules of silence which must be observed by all residents of the island, both Hindu and non-Hindu."
The full report can be found by going to the newsletter archive; click on the Jan. 10, 2000, issue.
A good source for checking out holidays in Bali and around the world is the Worldwide Holiday & Festival Site, which offers a country-by-country rundown of what happens when.
The Indonesian Embassy in Washington offers a description of Indonesian holidays, including this for Nyepi:
The Hindu Dharma New Year of the solar/lunar (Caka) calendar is celebrated only in the island of Bali.This holiday falls on the spring equinox and is observed as a day of complete stillness. No fire may be lit, no transport taken, no work done. No one should be seen on the roads. One day before Nyepi, the last day of the old year, purification sacrifices and offerings are placed at crossroads and in the centers of the villages and towns all over Bali. Priests chant mantras to exorcise the demons (buta and kala) of the old year.
In the evening the people of Bali bang gongs and cymbals in all the corners of the family compound and parade through the streets with torches to make sure that all the lingering evil spirits are aroused. In Denpasar (capital city of Bali), thousands of boys gather at streets.
The next day, the day of Nyepi, it is silent everywhere.
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