Nyepi

The Balinese celebrate their new year according to the Balinese 210-day wuku calendar, which usually means sometime in March according to ours. Celebrations begin with New Year’s Eve parades of giant paper maché monster dolls, known as Ogoh-Ogoh, that they burn at the Hindu temples to exorcise evil spirits. Then locals race around the island all night, clanging the kulkul (traditional bamboo bells) to scares away evil spirits. From sunrise the next day, the Balinese remain silently at home to ‘trick’ the malicious spirits into believing the isle is now uninhabited so they will leave for another year.