In Reply to: thanks posted by Razors on Monday, 26. July 2004 at 14:46 Bali Time:
Not a real lot to miss unless you like enforced silence. Of course, even that's not totally true these days...it's a lovely idea. Dare to wander about and you're bound to see Balinese gambling, watching TV (quietly), and all the rest.
Like I said - a great idea in the past (with all respect to the religious side of it). The night before Nyepi is when the people make a lot of noise to attract the demons' attention...then the "silence", to make the stupid demons think everybody's left the planet (or at least Bali). Quaint, huh?
Last Nyepi, because the elections were bungling along, the Balinese were told to hold all the ogoh-ogohs (the great papier mache statues). So - there were fewer than usual. I hope next year will be better.
Oh - and quite a few official holidays in Indonesia next year fall on Fridays/weekends, which means even more holidays for Indonesians. The Balinese don't really need any more. There's a saying that "BALI" means "Banyak Libur" (lots of holidays). With their extremely convoluted version of Hinduism, they need the extra time to get themselves organised. Sometimes I wonder when they're going to grow up - other times, I hope they never do.