Balinese Hindus are to perform a series of rituals early this March to celebrate the Saka Lunar New Year that culminate with the observance of Nyepi on March 7, a national holiday popularly known as the Day of Silence.

Three major island-wide rituals are to set the stage for Nyepi. First is Melasti, which usually takes four or three days prior to Nyepi.

In Melasti, members of a desa pekraman (traditional village) march together carrying temple effigies and sacred objects to a nearby ocean or lake shore. There the sacred objects are re-sanctified with the holy water of the sea or the lake.

For years Melasti has offered tourists and photographers an awe-inspiring sight of thousands upon thousands of white-clad Hindu devotees lining up along the shoreline of the deep blue sea.

The second ritual is Tawur Agung, which takes place at noon on the day before Nyepi. Held at major fields and road intersections across the island, the ritual is a religious “feast” to appease the destructive forces of nature. In this act of restoring the balance of nature, Hindu devotees sacrifice animals to those forces.

Both Melasti and Tawur Agung are noisy affairs. Yet, they are still less noisy than Ngerupuk, a boisterous street parade held on the eve of Nyepi.

Until the 1980s, Ngerupuk had been a simple parade of local youths carrying bamboo torches and playing gamelan to scare away demons.

Fast forward 35 years and Ngerupuk has become the island’s biggest street parade in which the local youths try to outdo each other in creating the most magnificent ogoh-ogoh — the giant papier-m'ché dolls once part of the cremation ceremony. Today, youths have transformed them into the centerpiece of the Ngerupuk.

Bamboo torches take a second seat to an elaborate dance and gamelan presentation and, sometimes, to modern sound systems belting out the wild tunes of electronic music.

During 2018’s Nyepi, in Denpasar alone the local youths created nearly 700 ogoh-ogoh.

These youths are grouped into Sekeha Teruna Teruni, the youth wing of the banjar (traditional neighborhood organizations). Creating ogoh-ogoh plays a critical role in maintaining the sense of camaraderie among the youths from the same banjar.

As the parade ends at midnight and the ogoh-ogoh are torched in the village cemetery, the island falls into an eerie silence. On the following morning, Bali enters Nyepi.

For 24 hours the Balinese observe Nyepi’s four abstinences: Amati Gni (refraining from lighting any fire and turning on lights), Amati Karya (refraining from working), Amati Lelungan (refraining from traveling outside the house) and Amati Lelanguan (refraining from partaking in any leisure activity).

The island falls into a total silence as roads are deserted, offices and schools closed, airport and harbors cease to operate and people stay in their own homes. Only members of the pecalang (traditional guardsmen) are allowed to patrol the streets.

At night, darkness engulfs the island, a striking contrast to the loud cacophony of the street parade the night before.

For purification: Balinese Hindus walk on Lembeng Beach in Gianyar, Bali, during Melasti, a purification ceremony, ahead of the holy day of Nyepi, last year. Nyepi is a day of silence to celebrate the Balinese new year, reserved for self-reflection, during which people are not allowed to use lights, light fires, work, travel or enjoy entertainment. (JP/Agung Parameswara)

The contrast, Balinese culturalist Ketut Sumarta suggests, provides Nyepi with a dramatic climax necessary to send its message home.

“Three loud rituals set the stage for a day of total silence. You can appreciate silence only after being drowned and exhausted by noise.”

Philosophically speaking, Nyepi underlines the importance of silence and emptiness in a devotee’s search for truth and enlightenment.

“Silence and emptiness are the alpha and omega of Balinese philosophy.”

For the laymen, however, it is a day for family reunions, a chance to huddle inside a warm home while enjoying traditional delicacies cooked with love.

It is an opportunity to converse intimately, an increasingly rare thing in this world dominated by modern gadgets and social media.

However, as the enforcement of Nyepi’s rules gets stricter by the year — internet services were stopped for the first time last year, following the step taken by local television stations that went off the air in previous years — an increasing number of Balinese have opted to “celebrate” Nyepi in hotels or even travel off the island.

Hotels on the island are still allowed to turn their lights on, but they are asked to be discreet and not organize any loud entertainment.

“I can understand their decision, particularly when they have toddlers who are afraid of darkness,” a housewife said.

A cultural activist, Marlowe Bandem, however, pointed out that the Balinese families who stay in hotels or travel to Hong Kong to dodge Nyepi miss a precious opportunity to educate their children about very important things.

“Nyepi compels us to stop staring at our televisions and cellphones, two things that we initially thought we couldn’t live without,” he said.

“It turns out there are many worldly things and conveniences that we could live without and that’s the very thing that our children need to learn about.”

Public conversations are still ongoing and that’s the beauty of Bali: Religious practices and traditions are still open for new interpretations.