Nyepi
The major festival of the sake year is New Year Nyepi, at the end of March or beginning of April the major purification ritual of the year. The days before Nyepi are full of activity - religious objects are taken in procession from temples to sacred springs or to the sea for purification. Sacrifices are made and displayed at crossroads where evil spirits are thought to linger, to lure them into the open. The night before Nyepi, the spirits are frightened away with drums, gongs, cymbals, firecrackers and huge paper-made monsters. On the day itself, everyone sits quietly at home to persuade any remaining evil spirits that Bali is completely deserted.

Saraswati
Another annual event, Saraswati, in honor of the goddess, takes place on the last day of the wake year. Books are particularly venerated and the faithful are not supposed to read, while students attend special ceremonies to pray for academic success.

Pagerwesi
The name literally means ‘iron fence’ on which day ceremonies and prayers are held for strong mental and spiritual defense in welcoming the Galungan holiday.

Galungan and Kuningan
Every six months the Balinese Hindus celebrate the great day of Galungan when the ancestor spirits come down to the earth to dwell again in the homes of their descendants. The spirits are entertained and welcomed with prayers and offerings.

‘Penjors’, long bamboo poles are erected together with a little bamboo altar from which hung a ‘lamak’, one of those beautiful mosaics on long strips of palm leaf on all the roads and the gate of every home.

Commerce practically ceases during the Galungan days. Schools are closed, and the normal life of the village concentrates exclusively upon the events surrounding this very sacred period. On the Sunday before Galungan, called Panyekeban, green bananas are sealed in huge clay pots. Lots of bananas are required for Galungan offerings, and this treatment will ripen them quickly. The next day, called Penyajaan, is devoted to make many colored cakes of rice dough (jaja) that are used for offerings. The markets are full of jaja in many kinds, so the busy housewife can buy them. On the day before Galungan or Penampahan, pigs, chicken, ducks or even cows are slaughtered for the traditional Galungan day feasts. Featured at these feasts is the traditional lawar, a spicy mixed vegetable with finely ground meat and dozen of spices.

Galungan day is a time for prayers, the kids wear new clothes and the whole of Bali went out for a great praying at puras or merajans. The women dress in beautiful kebayas and kambens (two or one half meters long, but slightly narrower than sarongs). A woman always wraps her body with kamben tightly, so it will performs a graceful figure. Some women make some pleats on their front side of ‘kambens’ and hold it with a flat hairpin alike. The men wear white clothes and ‘destar’ (scarf that tied on the head). They also wearing ‘kambens’, but wrapped in the different way with the women. When a man wraps the ‘kamben’ he ends up with a plaited fold that drapes down in front.

The day after Galungan is a time for visiting friends and relatives; the roads are jammed with cars and motorcycles.

Then, ten days after Galungan, come Kuningan day that marks the end of the Galungan celebration. There are still more offerings, as the ancestor spirits return to heaven. On Kuningan the women (housewives) usually make ‘nasi kuning’ or yellow cooked rice made of rice, spices and coconut milk. It tastes delicious especially if served with ‘lawar’. Actually, the yellow cooked rice symbolizes the welfare of people for the sake of God blesses, as the ripe rice color is yellow.

Festival Temple
Festival as an important feature of the Balinese life occurs on fixed dates according to the Balinese Calendar. There are annual cycle and every six months celebrations of holidays, life-cycle ceremonies of a Balinese person since the time inside the mother’s womb followed in stages up until marriage. The most important of the Balinese ritual is that includes funeral rites and cremation (Ngaben).

To maintain and preserve every aspect of the Balinese’s cultural life, annual festivals have been held by the Provincial Government. The Annual Art Festival usually takes place in every Saturday in the middle of June to Saturday in the middle of July with exhibitions and performances of various kinds of artworks and cultural achievements, such as Kite Festival.

Local temple festivals may be celebrated according to ‘wuku’ or sake calendars. The Bali government tourism office puts out a free comprehensive calendar of events booklet with color photographs, which gives you full details for the whole year. Also keep an eye on the tourist newspapers, which publish up-to-date lists.

Every temple has its annual ‘odalan’, an anniversary and purification ceremony, which lasts about three days. The majority of these are small, local affairs, but the celebrations at the large directional temples draw large crowds.