Bali events

Apart from the usual western calendar, the Balinese also use two local calendars, the Hindu saka and the wuku . The wuku calendar, which is used to determine festival dates, uses 10 different types of weeks between one and 10 days long, all running simultaneously! The intersection of the various weeks determines auspicious days. It's impossible to work it out yourself: when you arrive in Bali, go to a tourist office and ask which festivals and celebrations are coming up. Try to get to at least one.

The Galungan Festival , Bali's major feast, is held throughout the island and is an annual event in the wuku year. During this 10-day period all the gods come down to earth for the festivities and barongs (mythical lion-dog creatures) prance from temple to temple and village to village. The last and most important day of the festival is Kuningan .
is the major festival of the saka year - it's the last day of the year, and usually falls towards the end of March or the beginning of April. The day before is set aside as a day of purification across the island. The night before, evil spirits are noisily chased away with cymbals, gongs, drums and flaming torches. On Nyepi itself, everyone stays quietly at home, making no noise, using no lights and doing no cooking. The idea is that when evil spirits descend, they are fooled into thinking that Bali is uninhabited and leave the island in peace for another year.