Bali Photo of the Day ~ Galungan Holiday

Hello!

Bali Holidays ~ Galungan and Kuningan ~ A great time to visit Bali

Today’s Bali photo of the day comes from a trip to the north of Bali. We visited the home village of our good friend and colleague Kadek for the Galungan holiday. Kadek is from a small village in the mountains near Singaraja. He was trained to be the next spiritual leader of the village and introduced us to many Balians, traditional healers, Balines Hindu Priests and many other interesting people.

In this photo, Putu and many of the friendly (and funny) villagers walked with us to the temple for the Galungan ceremony.

Galungan is one of the most important holidays on the Balinese calendar and marks the start of the most significant recurring religious ceremonies. On this day, the victory of dharma over adharma is celebrated.  The ancestral spirits return to visit their family homes.  The spirits stay on Earth for ten days and are provided many types of ceremonies, entertainment and celebrations. The tenth day is another holiday known as Kuningan where the spirits will leave the Earth once again to return on the next Galungan holiday.

Elaborate offerings fill the temples, homes and even the streets. Giant six meter penjors line the streets. Penjors are large bamboo poles heavily decorated with beautiful and ornate offerings. Galungan is a celebratory time and young and old spend weeks preparing for this visual and spiritual feast.

I want to thank Kadek, his family and all the warm and generous people we met on this trip during the Galungan celebration.