The Galungan and Kuningan Festival

Among the many holidays in the Balinese 210-day calendar, the most prominent are undoubtedly those of Galungan and Kuningan ; the former on the Wednesday of the Dungulan week and the latter on the Saturday on the Kuningan week. Due to their frequency – roughly once every seven Gregorian months – these festivals are not celebrated as national holidays, but don’t try to do anything beetwen Penampahan Galungan (the day for the slaughter of the pigs that precede Galungan) and Manis Galungan, the day following it, or on the Friday preceding Kuningan; everything is closed. People go back to their village of origin to present offerings to their ancestors and village temples.

Unlike most Balinese festival which celebrate the particular anniversary of a temple, and are therefore scattered across the calendar, Galungan and Kuningan are all island holidays, everywhere, temples are all dressed up, with batik and white or yellow cloth wrapped around their individual shrines as sign that they are “occupied,” meaning the gods are visiting their descendants.

The ritual involved is a reminder of the strong ancestor’s cult aspect of the Hindu Balinese religion. When it took root in Bali, Hinduism instead of throwing away the older traditions as Christianity and Islam tended to do, integrated elements of ancestral beliefs and natural animism into its corpus, the rationale being that everything and every belief can be interpreted as “ray” or a manifestation of the “Ultimate Sun” of Surya (Siwa).

The ancestors do not come before being properly “invited”. They are expected to come on the Sugihan Jawa day when one makes offerings for the welfare of the world. The call is made in familiar language: “ Mai Jani mulih. Uba yang ngaenang banten. Mai delokin damuh-damuhe,” which means : “Please, come back home for a visit, we have prepared you food, please come and visit your descendants.”

This is all the more important for “dead” souls which have not yet undergone the whole cleansing process. If the dead is still buried in the cemetery, the soul is thought to be still hanging around nearby, provisionally entrusted to the God, the deity Prajapati. Thus it has to be handled with special care, and given the right punjung offering, lest it wreaks havoc among the living. But if the soul has been cremated and enshrined in the family temple, the danger is lessened and the chances are that its influence will be beneficent.

The language will change, though, to become more formal and religious, and the offering will be different, too: this time it will be a saji. The visit of the ancestors is expected to last until Kuningan. They will have feasted long enough and it will be time for them to go back to their realm of death. Another injunction will do “Go back over there to your abode of dead”. The shrines are then underessed and the temples return to quietness, waiting for another festival.

Source : Visitors Guide to Bali 2001/2002

Wishing a Happy Galungan and Kuningan Day to Ode and friends at Studio Kami, Dexno the master SEO and all my friends that celebrates it.