Nyepi, the Balinese Day of Silence is over. People are back to their daily activities and Bali is silent no more. During Nyepi people of all faiths were required to stay at home, without lights of making any noise. One Catholic seminary in a Balinese village closed for 3 days out of respect for Nyepi.
The village of Tuka is located 13kms west of Denpasar and contains 145 Catholic families and 9 Hindu families, with many Catholic families coming from surrounding villages. Bishop Benyamin Yosef Bria of Denpasar said “Because Nyepi and Lenten time coincided, we can use the time to reflect on the suffering of Christ who sacrificed himself to give salvation to his people.”
One of my neighbors, Mr Wayan is a Balinese Christian, which must be a strange position to be in during times of religious celebration. He told me he likes not having to pay for offerings or ceremonies and proudly showed me his new car. West Bali has 2 villages that are predominately Christian. Belimbingsari is Protestant and Palasari is Catholic. Would be interesting to check them out.
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Thats it just got to go to Belimbingsar on my next trip ti Bali –visit my Protestant mates!!Surely being an Indonesian protestant couldn’t be any harder than being and irish one !!!!!!
But then since i changed religions—West Coast eagles is my religion–Subiaco ovals my place of worship.
Cheers Laurs
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