The Worst Month in a Year

Published 3 months, 1 week ago in People & Community by Sidarta Wijaya | 249 Views

Bali, this february, is entering the ninth month of Caka lunar year which is known as Kesanga. The Kesanga is well-known as the worst month in a year which full of pestilences, swarms with bhuta kala or evil spirits, and the world ( in Balinese conception the island of Bali is the world) is littered with the wastes. The Kesanga is always related with the perils and disturbance by the Balinese.

In this month Balinese will perform many kinds of ceremonies is dedicated to pacify the evil spirits in order to reach the harmony. the grand payment to the evil spirits ceremony which is known as Tawur Agung is held in this month; each house compound performs a small payment ceremony (tawur) in front of their house, each hamlet holds a bigger payment ceremony, a bigger ceremony is held in village level which is performed in the biggest crossroad in that village. Bigger still is the payment ceremony that is performed in the district level and regency level, and the biggest one is held in the provincial level in the center of Denpasar.

These ceremonies is performed to clean the world since in this month is since Balinese believes that world is polluted with negative force and the balance of the positive and negative power needs to restored. in this month the beaches in Bali is usually filled with garbages which come out of nowhere; the garbages not just littered the beaches but sometimes also the sea; Balinese see this phenomenon as a sign of disruption of the great balance of the world power and the rituals and ceremonies are needed to restore the harmony.

The Kesanga is always a moth full of worry and precaution against all the potential harms which come from the disruption of the great balance.

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