I

t might come as a surprise that the Balinese not only have one calendar but two running in parallel to each other. Although the system is rather complex even to the natives themselves, no Balinese in his or her right mind would dare have a ceremony without first consulting the calendar to pick an auspicious day.

The modern Balinese paper calendar now has three date systems printed on it: Gregorian, Saka (lunar calendar) and Pawukon. This three-in-one calendar also contains all sorts of information ranging from anniversary dates of various Balinese temples to occurrences of full moon and new moon as observed in the Saka system.

Saka or Sasih represents a 12-month lunar system with each month beginning on the day after a new moon or tilem, while a full moon or purnama falls right in the middle of each Sasih month. These days are considered sacred by Balinese, and temple anniversary celebrations and festivals are usually held on a purnama.

Days prior to the Sasih New Year, the whole of Bali participates in celebrations by presenting offerings and performing temple cleansing rites to appease the gods. The day of the New Year, widely known as Nyepi, is the day the entire island goes into reflection and meditation.

While many cultures in the world refer to the moon's movements as a basis for their calendar system, Bali's other calendar is believed to be unique and indigenous to the Balinese - and it's not hard to see why.

The Pawukon calendar is a rare curiosity that is probably rooted in the millennia-old rice growing cycle of the island * though some sources said it could also have originated from Java. There are six months to a Pawukon year and 35 days to a Pawukon month, totaling to 210 days in a Pawukon year.

Here's the part where it gets tricky:

Each Pawukon month is divided into 10 different weeks of different lengths running concurrently to one other. The 10 weeks comprise one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10 days each, with each week's name derived from its Sanskrit origin: Ekawara for the one-day week, Dwiwara for the two-day week, Triwara for the three-day week, and so on.

It just so happens that each of the days in each of the 10 different weeks also has a unique name. So any given calendar date could have up to 10 different weekday names, one for each of the 10 weeks that are going on simultaneously!

The most important weeks, however, are the three-, five- and seven-day weeks. Since 210 is a number not divisible by nine, eight or nine, extra days are then added to the weeks with four, eight and nine days * still with me?

As if to add more complication to the calendar, Pawukon's 210 days is also divided into 30 other "weeks" known as Wuku. Although each Wuku has a unique name, thankfully each "day" in the Wuku remains unnamed, unlike days of the week in Gregorian or Javanese calendar.

All this and we haven't even touched on the degree of auspiciousness that each date is rated by! To leave you hanging on an intended pun, let's just say there's always another day for that .

To be continued in part 2