Tomorrow, all of Bali will shut itself inside for 24 hours, starting at 6 am, as Hindus on the island ring in 1938, the new year on the Saka calendar.
Well, almost all of Bali. Apart from the pecalang, traditional neighborhood security guards who patrol Bali’s deserted streets to make sure people stay and instead and don’t use bright lights, Muslims will also be permitted to leave their homes for prayers on March 9, Bali’s “Day of Silence,” during the partial solar eclipse.
“It is a mutual agreement with the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) Bali and the Inter-Religion Forum (FKAUB),” explained the Bali chairman of the Parisada Hindu Dharma Indonesia (PHDI), the country’s highest authority on Hinduism, as quoted by Rima News. Well, that’s a gesture of religious tolerance in Indonesia. Love it.
MUI Denpasar Chairman Saefudin added that those who go to pray in mosques and mushola (prayer rooms) must wear distinctive “worship” clothing and must do their prayers in a place that is walking distance from home, while mosques are not permitted to use loudspeakers over Nyepi.
Administrators of mosques and mushola that plan to perform prayers tomorrow must communicate with pecalang beforehand, so they can hold prayers between the hours of 7:30 am and 9 am, when the eclipse is forecasted.
