GALUNGAN CELEBRATION

If you happen to visit Bali ahead of the Galungan Days, you will find that the most exciting temples decorated, dressed with white and  yellow cloth wrapped around their temples. Streets are lined with Penjor, offerings suspended from the high, arched bamboo pool with decorations. Arch represents Mt. Agung, the body is a river that flows from the mountains to the sea, and along the route is the product of the harvest, tied to a pole, at the foot of the pole is a temporary temple. The Balinese Hindus use the Saka lunar calendar and the 210-day calendar Pawukon. Each of the 30 seven-day weeks in the cycle Pawukon have a unique name. Ten days between Wednesday Dunggulan, week 11, and Saturday from Brass, week 12, is a period called or  Kuningan started ending on the day.

It is unique 10-day celebration commemorates the goodness over evil in typically a melodramatic style. Balinese mythology colorful to say the least and the story behind Galungan took it to whole new level. Briefly, it involves a giant evil shape-shifting, blood stream and yearlong battle royal between the Gods. During Galungan divine spirit back to earth and expect to be welcomed and entertained by Balinese ritual is important and lavish parties.

The day before Galungan, the men came out at daybreak to search a pig for victims of swine temple. Meat used to make traditional spicy "lawar" satay plate, a bowl of soup "gravy brak" and the circle of pig intestines for food.
Only if you go native who lives in a rural village or a small family living homes that you see all the complicated preparation and busy activity going on behind the scenes, even though at busy resorts such as Kuta, it is almost impossible to avoid the fever Brass.

There are road blocks erected outside main temples as waves of devotees flood the area, bringing even more maddening traffic chaos than usual. Many restaurants and shops close for a few days but this is not on the scale of Nyepi (when Bali becomes a ghost town). There is still no shortage of places to get a cold beer or two and a bite to eat.

On Galungan day itself (always the Wednesday) it’s a time for families; your favorite bartender or the girl who cleans your hotel room each morning will have headed off home to the ancestral village at dawn to spend time with the folks. After a full day of prayers, a few petty family quarrels and non stop eating, it’s back to relative normality with perhaps a family stroll into the paddy fields for a picnic. Villages throughout the island celebrate the post-Galungan period in their own peculiar way.

The streets of Ubud are flooded with schoolchildren performing “Barong” dances with great enthusiasm while further east in Klungkung, a number of villages indulge in frenzied “Jempana” war games complete with long bamboo sticks to the sound of relentless drumming. There is also the bizarre ritual of a village elder seemingly “stabbing” himself with a ceremonial dagger while in a trance-like state. Curious onlookers are always welcome at these occasions and in small off-the-beaten-path villages you are likely to become the center of attention, especially with the throng of giggling
children.