INDONESIA, March 14, 2018 (Le Petit Journal, translated from French): On March 17, Indonesia will celebrate Nyepi, the day of silence. The day is a holiday throughout the country. This Hindu festival is celebrated in Bali especially, but also in Lombok and in several villages located between Malang and the Bromo volcano. This day of silence marks the beginning of a new year. The Hindu religion in Indonesia follows the Hindu saka calendar, it differs from the Gregorian calendar by about 50 years, so we enter the year 1940. This celebration is the occasion of many ceremonies that take place over several days.
In the Malang region, the villages of Jatirejoso and Karanpandan celebrate this holiday. In these villages half of the population is still today of the Hindu faith. Visiting these villages, the day before Nyepi, it is a party atmosphere that we find. We see everywhere Ogoh-Ogoh, these monsters made of paper and carried on bamboo towers, that aim to scare the evil spirits hoping to make them leave the village. Each district creates an Ogoh-Ogoh, hoping that theirs will be ugliest. They represent evil spirits but also malicious people. It is the children who carry these paper monsters through the village, accompanied by the sounds of drums and villagers. The Ogoh-Ogoh are then deposited in a meadow where they will be burned at night. The next day, Nyepi is the day of silence that aims to make the evil spirits believe that there is no one in the village so that they will leave the place in order to start a new year.