Tika: Balinese Traditional Calendar
Saturday, September 1st, 2007 by Sidarta Wijaya
Most of the temple anniversaries and ceremonies in Bali are held based on the traditional Pawukon cycle. The Pawukon cycle also called uku or wuku, was brought to Bali in the 14th century with the fleeing Hindu follower of the collapsed Majapahit empire. The Pawukon calendar flourishes in Bali though it originated from Java. The Pawukon cycle provides the reference system for most of the religious ceremonies in Bali, as well as market days, temple anniversaries, personal anniversaries, good and bad luck days, and days for doing particular things. A Pawukon “year”, which lasts 210 days, should really be thought as a cycle, since no record is kept of successive “years”, nor are they numbered or named, they just pass by. (image from http://www.louisg.net/C_balinais.htm)
The Pawukon cycle is quite complex since its 210 days are subdivided not according to simple system of months and weeks but into ten separate week systems. There is a week that only consists of one day; one consists of two days; one consists of three days, and so on, up to ten-day week. And they all run concurrently. And to add more complication on the cycle, Pawukon cycle also divides its 210 days into another thirty weeks known as Wuku. Each Wuku has its own name; each week consists of seven days, luckily there is no unique name for each day in these Wuku weeks.
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