Prices soar days before ‘Galungan’

The prices of fresh commodities, in particular flowers, fruits and coconut leaves, soared a few days before the major Hindu holiday of Galungan, which will fall on Wednesday. Hindu housewives flocked markets and shops to buy materials required for making offerings.

Pacar Cina flowers, which on normal days are sold at Rp 8,000 per kilogram, now command a price of Rp 35,000 per kilogram. The price of coconut leaves soared from Rp 2,000 to Rp 5,000 for 15 pieces.

Both are essential materials for the making of canang, the simplest of Balinese Hinduism offerings made of fresh flowers and leaves placed on a square container made of coconut leaves.

Housewives, who prefer to buy canang instead of making it, would find that the price of canang had also risen from Rp 7,000 to Rp 15,000 per 25 pieces.

“Prices have always soared every time we are about to celebrate Galungan,” housewife Ni Made Sarmini said, referring to the joyous Balinese Hinduism celebration of the victory of virtues over vices.

For this Galungan, Sarmini had set aside Rp 1 million to buy fruit, flowers, coconut leaves, cakes and incense for the making of 18 small offerings, three large fruit offerings of gebogan and for the penjor, a decorated bamboo pole erected in front of the house.

The money would also be used to cover the family feast on Penampahan, which falls one day before Galungan.

“Galungan is a special day, so it is OK for us to spend that amount of money. God has bestowed us with a good income this year so it will be all right if we set aside a portion of our income to make offerings. After all, all of those cakes and fruits will be ours once we have presented the offerings to God,” she said.

Sarmini works as a low-ranking civil servant at the provincial administration and makes Rp 3.5 million per month. The money she allocated for Galungan is nearly a third of her monthly income.

A professor at Udayana University’s economics faculty, I Made Sukarsa, revealed that Balinese Hindus spent a large proportion of their incomes to buy offerings to finance religious rituals.

In his 2005 research, he found that the island’s Hindu population spent up to Rp 1.8 trillion per year to finance routine religious celebrations, such as Galungan, Kuningan, Purnama (full moon festival), Tilem (dark moon festival) and Kajeng Kliwon. In one single year there are around 108 routine religious festivals.

“We had not included the money spent on non-routine religious events, such as the rites of passage and Ngaben cremation,” he added.

The research involved 405 households in all nine regency-level regions in Bali as its respondents. The research also found that each household spent Rp 2.6 million, or 10.5 percent of its total revenue per year, to finance routine religious festivals.

“Each year, Balinese Hindus consume more than 20,000 tons of fresh flowers and 36,000 tons of coconut leaves for making offerings for routine religious rituals,” he added.

Hindu high priest Ida Pedanda Gede Telaga of Sanur reminded Balinese Hindus that there was no obligation to present the most expensive offerings.

“Please do not forget that God does not need flowers, nor any fruits or cakes,” he said, adding that Hindu devotees should not present offerings or organize rituals beyond their economic means.

‘Our religion is a very flexible one. A specific ritual could be organized in a very simple way and also in a very extravagant way. A devotee should look at his ability and choose the most suitable way for him instead of going with the most expensive one for the sake of prestige.”