Full moon in Seminyak Bali

Tuesday night was purnama (full moon) and on the way to Sanur we saw many Balinese people in traditional outfits, heading down the Bypass for a local ceremony. This morning outside a shop on Jl. Seminyak I saw a beautiful offering. This has been placed to keep the entrance of the shop clear of evil spirits. There was an odalan going on nearby so it could have been placed there in celebration of that, I’m not sure. Thinking about purnama, its kind of magical, that all over Bali people will stay up most of he night in some places, to honor their beliefs, just as pagans must have done a thousand years ago.

The great thing for me is that the Balinese have combined their own local beliefs and rituals with Hinduism. This allows them to feel a strong connection with the mythology, rather than just swallowing hook, line and sinker, an imported belief system from halfway around the world.