What happens if a temple ceremony falls on Xmas or New Year’s?
A fact the more Euro-centric of us conveniently forget is that not everyone in this world lives according to the same calendar (well not yet, anyway…). I guess this is why when I first came to Bali I was intrigued on New Year’s Eve to see Balinese going to temple ceremonies rather than counting down to midnight with “the rest of us”. Perhaps presumptuously, I thought that the ceremonies would be postponed till ‘a later date’. But, of course they weren’t postponed and I’ll explain to you why they needn’t ever be.
Balinese ceremonial and ritual life is based on the Hindu Balinese Çaka calendar system where months have 35 days. So when a Balinese tells you that Galungan comes around every six months, don’t count 180 days but in fact 210 days; this person is talking in their own calendar terms, not ours.
Basically, it is conceivably possible that ceremonies - ranging from the fairly insignificant to the hugely significant - can fall on any day of the year. Galungan may be celebrated at Xmas, Nyepi at Lebaran. One word springs to mind when talking about all of this: tolerance. This word is crucial to inter-religious understanding, especially in a country like Indonesia (and a tiny island like Bali) where people place religion high up on their value scale.
The fact that Hindu Balinese may sometimes have ceremonies on Xmas Eve or Idul Fitri doesn’t mean that the people don’t respect other faiths; its simply means that their calendar which is out of sync with other calendars has dictated that there must be a ceremony on that day. This is what makes Bali such a fascinating place—there is always an excuse for a celebration with much color, fanfare and activity; and this celebration could be a double whammy if say it falls on New Year’s Eve!
Vaughan Hatch has immersed himself with Balinese culture, living with locals in Bali since 1997. He speaks fluent Indonesian and Balinese, and is unashamedly addicted to playing gamelan. A linguistic, archaeology and publishing graduate, he works for indOKiwi ‘linguistic and cultural solutions’ in Sanur. Email him on contact@indokiwibali.com or call (0361) 464201 for further queries.
