Last Days of the Semester: Galungan and Bedulu

It's a bit surreal to realize that as I'm writing this, my semester abroad is officially over. Last night, we had our final party with the host families, ISP advisers, and some of the students from Udayana University who came to Munduk Pakel with us back in March. Then this morning we signed off and said our goodbyes. Most of us are either sticking around in Bali for a few days or traveling throughout Southeast Asia, so I might run into some of the other students in the next week (and I did about an hour ago) but still, the semester is done. Odd.

For the last few days we've been back in Bedulu, finishing things up for the semester. Tuesday and Wednesday of this week were Galungan, which some Balinese people have described to me as their version of Christmas, but I'm not sure I see the connection. (I think it's mostly because they hang decorations that kind of look like Christmas trees, in a very vague sense.) Everyone's description of the "purpose" of Galungan varies, but from what I understand, it's mostly a time to honor ancestors and make lots of offerings. (Balinese Hinduism is, to massively oversimplify, sort of a combination of Indian Hinduism, traditional ancestor worship, and a little bit of animism.) For the first day, people stay home and make offerings in their own family temple -- each family compound has their own temple/shrine -- and on the second day, people visit their friends and extended family.

The alleyway by my house. If you blow the picture up, you should be able to see the things that are "like Christmas trees" -- they're the palm leaf arches over the road.

Oh, of course I'd forget this sort of thing: on Galungan and the holiday ten days after it, Kuningan, lots of pigs get sacrificed to make babi guling (roast suckling pig) and lawar (a dish made of vegetables, coconut, and pig blood).

 This is not a roasting pig. It is, in fact, a dog eating offerings (which isn't considered bad -- once the offerings are out they're fair game for animals to eat). As soon as I tried to take a picture of her eating them, she started barking at me angrily. See why I say the dogs here are mean?

(I should also point out that right now there are a bunch of kids playing gamelan outside the cafe I'm sitting in, and two of the kids are dressed in a very elaborate boar costume and dancing. I wish I had my camera!)

Now to jump forward in time: I have a day to kill in Ubud, and then tomorrow my family comes to Bali! For a little over a week I'll get to play tour guide, and then after that we head to Thailand (assuming the political situation is stable enough, touch wood). So I'll have more adventures to post about there, and then I'm home May 31st. Excitement!