Melasti A Balinese Ritual To Cast Away Impurities & Miseries

Women Carrying Offerings of Fruits, Sweet Cakes & Flowers

Men Carrying Jempana or Sedan Chairs & Effigies & Hallowed Representations Like Barong (Good Spirit) & Rangda (Monster)

Men Dressed In White Walking Towards The Sea

Villagers Dressed In Their Finery Carrying Long-poled Umbrellas Walking In Line
The Melasti Ritual occurs three to four days before Nyepi the Balinese Day of Silence, Bali's Lunar New Year which fell on March 26 2009 this year. Nyepi is reserved for self-reflection.

Hence anything which might interfere with that purpose is restricted. Hence there should be not lighting, no working, no entertainment, no pleasure, no travelling, and for some no talking or eating during daylight. The radios & TVs are switched off & the streets are empty. The airport at Denpasar was closed for the day.

On the other hand Melasti is a boisterous affair. It is the time of the year when villagers all over Bali gather together & dressed in their finery & in white to signify purity. They walk in unison towards the sea or a water source such as a spring to cleanse their deities & for them to cast away their miseries. Near the water source the men will rush their sacred objects into the water to symbolically wash them & thus purify the deities.

On the day of Melasti one will find offerings of meat at cross-roads the haven of evil spirits. The offerings are to placate the evil spirits. In the evening much noise & din are created in order to awaken the evil spirits and demons to feast on the offerings.