Nyepi in Indonesia
Every religion or culture in the world has its own way to define and celebrate its new year. For example, the Chinese have the Imlek year and they celebrate it as “Gong Xi Fat Choy,” which means, “Chinese New Year gift.” The Muslims have their Muharam year and they go to Masjid to pray. In Indonesia, Nyepi is a religious observance for Hindus and it is a very unique ceremony. Nyepi is derived from the word sepi, which means silent. I still remember how quiet it was in Bali on the day of Nyepi, since there are no activities on that particular day. Bali is the main island where people go to celebrate Nyepi, because 80% of the population is Hindu. However, other Hindus who do not live in Bali still commemorate Nyepi. Out of
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They wear traditional attire, carry long-poled umbrellas and march to the sea. This occasion is dedicated to Sanghyang Widhi/Vishnu-Devas-Bataras, one of the gods (Putu, 2002). Melasti takes place at the beaches in Bali in order to respect the gods as the owners of land and sea. In this ritual, women carry fruits, flowers and sweet cakes to offer, while the men carry effigies, called Barong. Barong is a symbol for them to sense the gods’ presence. Upon their arrival at the ocean, the pendada (leader of the ritual) prays and rings his small bell. Afterwards, the men who carry the sacred statue rush into the ocean and start purifying the effigy. Hindus view the ocean as an element that has power of sanctification and purification. It is believed that water can cleanse anything atrocious from a human …show more content…
It is the day when families convene to ask forgiveness to each other. Afterwards, they walk in their neighborhood to greet and welcome people to the New Year. They also visit their relatives and friends to share happiness. Hindus are happy and blessed for their success of controlling themselves during Nyepi. Some people prefer to read lontar (manuscript) and some sing holy songs. Activities slowly go back to normal. On this day, shops that are owned by Balinese are closed while the shops that are owned by international traders are open. Moreover, what is interesting from this day is the Pasar Maju Langu on the beach. Here, vendors sell goods and other merchandise for people on the beach until midnight. Retailers have their own style of decorating their stands so people will be interested in buying their goods. Most of them also sell fireworks for Hindus to celebrate the New Year. With the new atmosphere, the New Year begins with clean, pure
the deities and attempt to explain the psychological necessity of these rituals. An examination will be made of the typical forms of rituals, and cite their effects,
Vietnamese festival for celebrating the lunar New Year. On the first day of the festival,
As the sunrises over the crisp fall horizon, followers begin to surround the sacred space in anticipation for what is about to take place. The sacred space is soon surrounded by people who are dressed in the sacred colors, some wearing necklaces of their totem, while others wear headdresses that adorn with their sacred symbol. People begin to drink, play music, and prepare a banquet feast for each other, creating a festival atmosphere in hope that today’s ritual will be a success. As the ritual gets set to begin followers begin to crowd into the sacred space, surrounded with pictures and names of those who have reached greatness. As the ritual begins, music is played in order to bring everyone together and prepare for the events that are about to unfold. It is now that the followers have a very simple focus, to aid in the success of the ritual. Those who celebrate the ritual take there places in the middle of the sacred space, with the followers surrounding them; now that the ritual has begun the celebrants begin to perform and focus on certain actions in order connect themselves with the transcendent sacred. The followers who look on begin to aid by chanting, allowing themselves to also transcend. In hopes that the ritual was a success, everyone does their part until the last second of the ritual is completed, it is only then that it can be decided if the ritual was a success and they can either celebrate or grieve by signing in their most sacred song, bonding them once again with each other.
2) There are many rituals carried out by the Indigenous people but in particular there is one called
...as a very important day. Diwali; the word itself meaning “row of lights,” is another prominent Hindu holiday and occurs on what we know as New Year Eve—December 31st. It is a festival lights in which last for a five days. The lighting of candles signifies the welcoming of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth. Gambling is a norm on Diwali as it is seen as a way of assuring good luck for the upcoming year. The fourth day of Diwali is especially significant as it is the beginning of the lunar month of Karttika. On this particular day many celebrate religious customs to signify the New Year according to the Vikrama calendar (“Religion Facts,”n.p).
Another unique custom in Indonesia is the Walking Dead. When a person dies, it is important that they return to the village they were born in. Villages were far apart, and it would be difficult to carry the body over the rough terrain. People would help the dead to walk back to the birthplace. Roads and more availability of vehicles has made it easier to transport the corpse.
...tovah tikateiv veteichateim,” “May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.” c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.), in evocation of the verse, “And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea.” And as with every major Jewish holiday, after candle lighting and prayers Jews recite kiddush and make a blessing on the challah. Both in Judaism and Hinduism the New Year is a time of celebration. A time where all people but the past behind them and enter the New Year with a clean slate, where God had forgiven all people for all there sins from the previous year.
Since I grew in traditional chinese family, so I don’t know much about religions. In my family, we don’t go to church or temple. In my family, we do have some special customs that we follow during holidays,
Out of the 365 days in a year, Diwali, known as the “festival of lights,” is by far the most important day to celebrate for every Indian. Like much of Indian and Hindu tradition, this holiday comes with a historical background framing its significance. The history of Diwali reflects the memory of Ram shooting an arrow through Raven’s stomach because Raven kidnapped Sita. In Hinduism, ladies are highly regarded because following that event, Ram doubted Sita for her purity and gave her the Agni pariksha (the fire test). Although the test proved her purity and bravery, Sita became upset and appealed to mother earth to conceal her within. Mother earth, understanding her sorrow, accepted her. This event from the time of the gods forecasted the biggest factor to tear apart marriage in Hindu culture by investigating the theme of doubt. The profound religious meaning behind this is opaque and is further formed by uniting family and friends together to celebrate the festival of lights. Another important holiday is Holi, the festival of color, which occurs around the season of harvest. Today, it is celebrated by spreading many colorful powders on everyone participating. The deeper significance behind Holi is between the power of truth, honesty, and good karma versus evil. Lord Krishna was born with a darker skin color and his love, Radha, was born with a fairer skin tone. Once Lord Krishna had a blue skin color
BAYKAL, Nurulhude. "MURATHAN MUNGAN'in "ZAMANIMIZIN BİR KÜLKEDİSİ"Nİ MARKSİST KURAM ÇERÇEVESİNDE OKUMAK. (Turkish)." Milli Folklor 24.96 (2012): 137-147. Academic Search Premier. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Firstly anthropologists studied here have given us the over arching structural importance of religious ritual to social power in unity and cohesion of ideas provided by such rituals. TO do this though they had to examine the actual rituals in society and the purpose they also serve within the temporal space they occupy.
Bali is quite complex in their belief systems, especially when perceived by the western world. Their belief system is not comprised of a singular core religion, but of a sort of amalgam of various world religions. The religion of Bali is referred to as Hindu-Balinese Religion, or Agama Hindu Bali (Ramseyer 93), but the true religion of this culture is far more multi-faceted than this title justifies. The people of Bali have essentially created their own individualized religion by combining Mahayana Buddhism, orthodox Siwaism, “demonic practices of Trantric sects”, and Javanized Hinduism from Majapahit, joined by a dualistic world view and worship of nature and ancestors (Ramseyer 93).
When you submerge into a ritual bath, you are appreciating a beginning to open yourself up to soul. Ritual cleansing, otherwise called a ritual bath is the procedure when water and supplication wash away any profound dreary. You are demonstrating that you need to tune into your higher self, tolerating something else, all things considered. You are also demonstrating that you are opening up to the universe with the hope to better yourself sooner rather than later. Entering a ritual bath is getting an individual arranged into a custom affair. A ritual cleansing is a recuperating procedure that finds the inward body soul. It is a drug that is helping a great deal of social individuals all