A couple of weeks ago on Wednesday, April 28th you may have
heard Balinese talking about celebrating Pagerwesi. This day
is considered by Balinese to be in the “top five”
in terms of religious and ceremonial importance. It is celebrated
over just one day and always falls on a Wednesday, referred
to as Buda Keliwon Wuku Sinta on the Saka calendar. Like other
religious days that are part of the Pawukon cycle, Pagerwesi
occurs once every seven Roman calendar months.
‘Pagerwesi’ derives from the words ‘pager’
meaning fence and ‘wesi’ meaning iron. Symbolically,
Pagerwesi is a time when Hindus attempt to ‘fence’
themselves off from all things negative and focus on the positive,
often through meditation. Some people also say that the ‘iron
fence’ is put up around your mind to protect the good
knowledge you have gained from Saraswati Day four days beforehand.
In temples across Bali people pray to the five manifestations
of God and their five directions: Içwara (east), Brahma
(south), Mahadewa (west), Wisnu (north) and Çiva (centre).
Some Balinese may choose to meditate.
You will see people placing offerings around their house compound
and in their family temple. People also put offerings on the
graves of any deceased family members that have not yet been
cremated, to spiritually protect them. In some villages –
particularly in North Bali – people decorate their streets
with bamboo poles called penjor
Pagerwesi is an excellent time to witness some fascinating
and unique gamelan and dance performances which are an integral
part of the religious festivities. At Payogan Agung Temple
in Ketewel there is a sacred masked legong dance called Legong
Dedari (Legong of the Angels) which is accompanied by an ancient
gamelan orchestra from the time of the great Sukawati Kingdom.
Also in Sanur, there is a captivating sandaran, barong and
rangda dance held at one of the temples in Banjar Pekandelan.
Copyright@ Kulture Kid 2007
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