FestivalSoutheast Asia
Nyepi
No rule yet
Nobody has written a rule for this observance yet, so the calendar does not put it on a day. A name with a made-up date beside it would be worse than a name on its own.
In short
Bali stops for a day - no fire, no work, no going out.
The story
The Balinese day of silence, and the new year of the Saka calendar there. For twenty-four hours the island stops: no fire, no work, no travel, no entertainment, and the airport closes - the only country in the world that shuts an international airport for a religious day. The explanation given is that the island should look uninhabited. Balinese Saka calendar, not computed here.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Why it matters
Bali stops. For twenty-four hours there is no light, no fire, no work, no travel and no entertainment; the airport closes and the streets are patrolled to keep them empty. The silence is meant to persuade any passing malevolence that the island is deserted, and the night before is spent driving it out with ogoh-ogoh effigies and noise.
What people do
The night before is the opposite: ogoh-ogoh, huge papier-mache demons, are carried through the streets with drums and then burned. Then silence from six in the morning. The four rules are no fire, no work, no travel and no pleasure, and the day after is for asking forgiveness.
Retold from the Gujarati household practice
Told differently elsewhere
Bali alone, and observed by residents and visitors of every religion - it is the only place in the world where an entire airport closes for a religious observance. It opens the Balinese Saka year, which trails the Indian Saka era it is derived from.
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