Put that phone down during Nyepi and don’t even think twice about posting selfies online during the Balinese holiday.
Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu new year, is Bali’s ‘Day of Silence’, when everyone on the island—Hindu or not—is expected to power down. People stay inside, lights are not supposed to be seen from the street (if you’re really Balinese Hindu, you’re not using lights in the first place), and even the island’s international airport is closed for the 24-hour period. Tradition holds that you’re supposed to refrain from physical work as well as travel, while the time should be honored for self-reflection.
The age-old practice is guided by the Balinese belief that mythical evil spirits come out on new years. By hiding, they trick the spirits into thinking Bali is deserted.
Pecalang, the traditional Balinese neighborhood security, monitor the streets and make sure everyone is complying.
However, of course not everyone, especially the non-Balinese/non-Hindu population are 100 percent following the rules.
Knowing that Bali’s chock full of tourists, many hotels offer Nyepi packages where you can move freely around the hotel and use electricity and enjoy entertainment so long as you’re not projecting noise or light outside.
And even so, locals push the boundaries of Nyepi too. Last year, photos circulated after the holiday of people posing in empty streets, claiming to have gone out during Nyepi. As you could imagine, the photos caused quite an uproar in Bali.
To discourage this sort of mischief from happening again, a joint meeting with religious leaders in Bali, representing Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists, was held on Wednesday this week to discuss the “prohibition of selfies” ahead of the holiday. This year, Nyepi, year 1938 on the Saka calendar, falls on March 28, 2017.
About 30 religious leaders were in attendance at the meeting held in Denpasar at the regional Department of Religious Affairs this week.
The department’s head, I Nyoman Lastra says he will put out a circular urging Balinese not to upload selfies or other photos during Nyepi.
“That’s already actually not allowed, you cannot selfie in the street (during Nyepi). This sort of thing should not be done by Hindus or any other people,” Tribun Bali quoted Lastra as saying.
“The rule is explicitly that you should not be outside,” he added.
“Selfies are in direct violation of Catur Brata, Amati Geni (no fire or light) and Amati Lelanguan (no entertainment or merrymaking), for taking photos outside.”
Reports did not go into whether or not Lastra explicitly discussed how a selfie ‘ban’ would be enforced, but we recommend complying out of respect to the local beliefs and customs—and besides, would you really want to have the pecalang knocking on your door? (FYI, blasphemy is technically illegal in Indonesia, so there’s that.)
And it’s not just selfies that religious leaders would like to do away with. The meeting also discussed getting rid of hotel packages featuring entertainment during Nyepi. Though not much was reported on how exactly the department would get hotels to cut out these popular packages.
Lastra says his office is working on socializing the ‘ban’ on selfies before this year’s Nyepi.
“Especially now, with advances in technology, almost every Nyepi selfie should create a discussion about the lack of understanding that’s amongst young children,” he concluded.
