In Reply to: Hold On Here a Bit! posted by Barong Naga on Saturday, 24. July 2004 at 09:14 Bali Time:
Yes, as you say, 'Galungan is a time for family, prayer, and offering, especially to ancestors,' but why on that particular day?
Like everything else in Bali, one single answer to a question or explanation of an event is never possible. Most of the time, these multiple interpretations contradict each other, but this usually does not seem to bother the Balinese. Notwithstanding the learned explanation of Galungan by Taksu, here below, one of the several interpretations of Galungan is indeed the triumph of dharma (good) over adharma (evil), if only temporarily. Galungan, which falls on Rebo (Wednesday) of the Dunggulan week in the Balinese Pawukon calendar, is the day when the supposedly evil (another controversial opinion) king, Mayadenawa, was killed by Indra. King Mayadenawa ruled Bali in the 6th Century C.E. He supposedly forbade the worshipping of the Gods, and destroyed the temples, trying to suppress religion altogether (Maybe he was on to something?). As a result, Bali underwent rough times, with crop failures, pestilence, you name it. Fortunately, Indra intervened, killing Mayadenawa, and, in the process, restoring religion to the Balinese people.