A Time to Keep Silent

Hi all,

Sorry for the long silence here, but I have been doing some self-reflection and travelling and right now I am in Bali, Indonesia for the next few weeks. It is absolutely wonderful here and very warm, which is what I needed.

On March 5th here, the Balinese people will be celebrating Nyepi Day, which is their New Year. It is a really interesting celebration, where the entire country shuts down... no electricity, no flights, no walking outside your home. It is a day of self-reflection and purification. It is the day of silence. I am very excited to be here during this time and also witness many of the celebrations and rituals leading up to it. I was just looking up some information and reading about it online and I thought I would include some links to information here in case you haven't heard of this day or would like to do something to celebrate it in our own way where you are. The Balinese government is urging people around the world to take part in whatever way they can also as a way of reducing our world wide consumption of fuels, even if it is for one day.

http://balifriend.net/nyepi_day.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyepi

The Nyepi Day, the silence day


On the first day of the New Year after the noisy night a silence and quiet day is performed. Nyepi derive from 'sepi' means silence. The activities in all over the Bali island is stopped for 24 hours. There are four mandatory religious prohibitions called Catur Brata Penyepian that should be followed by common Hindu people in Bali. The prohibitions include amati geni or no fire, amati karya or no work, amati lelanguan or no entertainment and pleasure, and amati lelungan or no travelling. These prohibitions help people to control their five earthy senses by mind and wisdom in order to increase the quality of life for the upcoming year. For people with higher spiritual ability or willing to have higher spiritual life are expected to perform further prohibitions include fasting by not eating or drinking, stay still by not talking, meditating by focusing the mind to the God and praying.

Ngembak Geni, a day of forgiveness.

The anti-climax of the Nyepi day is on the following day, which is called Ngembak Geni where people share happiness by visiting their relatives and friend. The new year is started by forgiving each other and forget the hate in the past year and work together to face the challenge of the New Year.

A Whole Lotta Silence,

Adrienne