What It,s ....GALUNGAN IN BALI ISLAND ?

  

What It's ..Galungan in Bali Island.

Here in Bali we are on the eve of an important day

Galungan is a Balinese holiday that occurs every 210 days and lasts for 10 days. Kuningan is the last day of the holiday. Galungan means "When the Dharma is winning." During this holiday the Balinese gods visit the Earth and leave on Kuningan.

is a ten-day festival celebrated throughout the island. The gods and deified ancestors are invited to descend from heaven. Penjor— tall, decorated bamboo poles—are raised in front of each house and temple to represent fertility.

Galungan in Bali island is the celebration of the dominance of dharma (good) over adharma (evil) and the religious holiday lasts for three days.
Although Galungan falls on a Wednesday, most Balinese will begin their Galungan ‘holiday’ the day before, The first day is called penampahan. On this day, Balinese Hindus prepare all the offerings and decorations needed for galungan day.

where the family is seen to be busily preparing offerings and cooking for the next day. While the women of the household have been busy for days before creating beautifully woven ‘banten‘ (offerings made from young coconut fronds), the men of village usually wake up well before dawn to join with their neighbours to slaughter a pig unlucky enough to be chosen to help celebrate this occasion. Then the finely diced pork is mashed to a pulp with a grinding stone, and molded onto sate sticks that have been already prepared by whittling small sticks of bamboo. 
 They also prepare a lot food, including lawar (spicy vegetables normally mixed with raw blood). In fact, well before this day, people have already started making cakes and slaughtering the pig needed for the pig dish. These days are called penyekeban and penyajaan.

On galungan morning, the whole family prays together in their family temple (sanggah) and then normally proceed to one of the village temples to pray and take part in a larger ceremony with other villagers. People offer thanks to God for protecting man from temptation. They then beg forgiveness for any sins they have committed in the past and also pray for spiritual peace.
 
The next day, manis galungan, is a time to get together with the family and catch up with more distant relatives, who may have come from far away to pray at the sanggah.

The day after Galungan is a time for a holiday, visiting friends, maybe taking the opportunity to head for the mountains for a picnic. Everyone is still seen to be in their ‘Sunday best’ as they take to the streets to enjoy the festive spirit that Galungan brings to Bali.

Galungan in Bali Island By mybaliinfo.blogspot.com