Nyepi

It was dark, only I and the stars above shone accompany with the moonlight ^^

When people around the world campaign about earth hour (turning off the lamp for 1 hour on 28th march) people in Bali turning off the lamp (supposed to be) for the whole day on Thursday, 26tth we have Nyepi here in Bali.

Nyepi is a new year for Hindu People, they are using Caka Calendar, I'm not hindu so i don't know exactly what is Nyepi, but from my experience living in bali since i was a baby. I can tell that Hindu people actually have to fasting for the whole day. And the day before nyepi is called "ngrupuk" usually they hold a carnival, they make a lot of noisy sound, and make monster (very big sometimes) from papers, linen, plastic, etc (materials that easy to burn because at the end of the day they have to burn them), unfortunately this year the Government prohibited that carnival, because we have election this year, and that kind of carnival is easy to be used for campaign which can easily make a fighting between groups also.


But in my opinion the practice is not really good, in the nite of "ngrupuk" lot of young people having kind of spontaneous stage and having kind of small and party with alcohol. Usually it is the group from neighborhood about 20-30 persons. I'm a little bit confusing with what they are doing, what the point for having all nite long drink alcohol when tomorrow they have to be fasting (yeach there's a point actually, with make theirself drunken they can automatically fasting tomorrow, because they are even to drunk for waking up hahaha) and that practice is totally different with ngrupuk philosophy, as i know the meaning of ngrupuk is to make noisy sound to scare the bad monster, bad spirit, etc. But with party like that, doesn't it invite the monster to theirself, so no wonder if in ngrupuk nite there's an fighting case, it's a normal things in Bali these day.

For me Nyepi is a day in one year that I alwasy waiting for. I love the feeling to be one with nature in nyepi (even if you are living in the middle of city), and luckily nyepi this year I'm almost alone in my house (almost because all of my family were in Jakata, and I only accompanied by some pembantu).
I love watching the stars from veranda, it's really cool because there's no other light except stars and moon, you have to experienced nyepi yourself to get the feeling !
You can feel the solitude in the positive way.....

And when nyepi comes I always reminiscing my childhood, when nyepi I always have football games on the mainstreet in the afternoon with neighborhood kids (I did until i become 12 years old), and sometimes some pecalang (banjar officer) will scold our parents for letting us playing on the street (not scolding actually because we are living in the same neighborhood and know each other well, they only did what they have to do). hahaha. what a day ^_^p.

We love our childhood, we love to live in ignorance, don't we?

my tips if you are going to Bali in nyepi day, just living in your relatives house instead of Hotels, it's better, believe me!