Ceremonies and festivals
Bali lives by a ritual calendar. These are the ceremonies a visitor is most likely to meet or hear about, and the ideas that sit behind them.
Melukat, the water rite
Tirta Empul was founded around a spring in 962, under the Warmadewa dynasty; Balinese Hindus still come to its water for melukat, ritual purification. Wikipedia
Galungan
Galungan celebrates the victory of dharma over adharma, when ancestral spirits visit; penjor line the roads, and Kuningan ten days later marks their return. In 2027: 13 and 23 January. Wikipedia
Kuningan
Kuningan falls ten days after Galungan, on 23 January 2027, and marks the end of the festival period. Wikipedia
Penjor
During Galungan, tall decorated bamboo poles called penjor arch over the lanes of Bali. nusapenida.org
Nyepi
Nyepi, the Day of Silence, falls in March: for 24 hours the island has no lights, traffic or flights; the evening before, ogoh-ogoh effigies are paraded and burned. nusapenida.org
Omed-omedan
On the day after Nyepi, the unmarried young people of Banjar Kaja Sesetan in Denpasar meet in the street for Omed-omedan, pulling and embracing until they are doused with water. Wikipedia
The pawukon calendar
The Balinese pawukon year lasts 210 days, and ten different weeks run at once, of one to ten days each. Wikipedia
Tri Hita Karana
Tri Hita Karana means three causes of well-being: harmony with God, among people, and with nature. Wikipedia
Balinese names
Balinese children are named for their birth order: Wayan for the first, Made for the second, Nyoman or Komang for the third, Ketut for the fourth; a fifth is often called Wayan Balik, "Wayan again". Wikipedia
Planning a stay around it
- A small wedding or ceremony at a Bali villa What to know before holding a ceremony, vow renewal or small wedding at a private villa in Bali: legal versus symbolic, space, noise limits and who to ask.
- Bali in the wet season — what it is actually like The honest version of a Bali wet-season holiday: when it rains, what it does to the beaches, what an open-air villa is like in a downpour, and Nyepi.
- A week in Seminyak: an itinerary with room in it Things to do in Seminyak as a seven-day itinerary, one thing a day: arrival, the beach, a day in the garden, one long drive, a slow last morning.
Staying in Seminyak? Villa Aniri is a four-bedroom private villa with a teak Joglo. A week in Seminyak · Check availability