Today, Thursday is another of the 13 National Holidays that are observed throughout Indonesia. This is the Nyepi (or Hindu New Year) and although it is very much observed in the Hindu-majority island of Bali, it is basically a day off from work throughout other parts of Indonesia.
In Bali there are noisy parades of the effigies, known as Ogoh-Ogoh, that are usually carried by young men to the beaches to be burned before sunrise, symbolising renewal and the cleansing of evil from the island. However, since there is quite a bit of unrest due to next month's elections, many of the parades in Bali have been called off for this year. As in the past, the tourists in Bali are being confined to hotels for Nyepi, when stick-wielding traditional guards take over the streets to enforce the dusk-to-dawn silence.
To find out when Nyepi falls in a given year, you will need information on the cycles of the moon for that year. Whenever the new moon falls between mid-March and mid-April, that night will be the night of great activity and exorcism island-wide, while the next day will be the day of total peace and quiet, where everything stops for a day.
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