By request, my friend, Iadi, has just given me the 'Readers' Digest' explanation of Nyepi Day.
Firstly, the day before Nyepi, you have the Ogoh-Ogoh. These are hideous creatures representing all the evil that people have stored up within themselves--greed and violence and hatred and unforgiveness and so on. People, usually young men, construct representations of these demons out of lightweight wood, paper mache and such-like (as they will need to be carried by hand), and in the evening, these are paraded in communities throughout Bali (and typically on display the day after Nyepi so that tourists can shoot photos, after which time they are burned (not the tourists or the photos, but the Ogoh-Ogoh).
These are the characteristics each individual must seek to dispel from his soul, which is done through silence, meditation and prayer on Nyepi day itself. Every year, therefore, the world renews itself, overcoming evil with good.
On the day after Nyepi, there is a baptismal sort of washing at many of the temples, where people will receive a ritual bathing as a testimony to the cleansing that has occurred. It is not once for all time, as with the Christian baptism in water, but once per year every year.
So now I understand--though I will have probably forgotten again by next year. Come to think of it, maybe that's the point.
Firstly, the day before Nyepi, you have the Ogoh-Ogoh. These are hideous creatures representing all the evil that people have stored up within themselves--greed and violence and hatred and unforgiveness and so on. People, usually young men, construct representations of these demons out of lightweight wood, paper mache and such-like (as they will need to be carried by hand), and in the evening, these are paraded in communities throughout Bali (and typically on display the day after Nyepi so that tourists can shoot photos, after which time they are burned (not the tourists or the photos, but the Ogoh-Ogoh).
These are the characteristics each individual must seek to dispel from his soul, which is done through silence, meditation and prayer on Nyepi day itself. Every year, therefore, the world renews itself, overcoming evil with good.
On the day after Nyepi, there is a baptismal sort of washing at many of the temples, where people will receive a ritual bathing as a testimony to the cleansing that has occurred. It is not once for all time, as with the Christian baptism in water, but once per year every year.
So now I understand--though I will have probably forgotten again by next year. Come to think of it, maybe that's the point.
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