Ogoh Ogoh

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Today, 22 march, on the eve of Nyepi,the traditional Ogoh Ogoh parade on Bali.
Ogoh-ogoh are statues built for the Ngrupuk parade.
Ogoh Ogoh monsters are colourful monster sculptures, which are made from bamboo frames and paper mache.
The main purpose of the making of Ogoh-ogoh is the purification of the natural environment of any spiritual pollutants emitted from the activities of living beings (especially humans).
An Ogoh-ogoh is normally standing on a pad built of timber planks and bamboos.
There are normally eight or more men carrying the Ogoh-ogoh on their shoulders. This procession is accompanied by orchestral music performed by the youth. The use of flares is also a main part of the parade.
During the procession, the Ogoh-ogoh is rotated counter-clockwise three times. This act is done at every T-junction and crossroad of the village.

So this is how we spent the day.......starting at about 5pm....Kate brought over some Bingtang in a plastic bag (I know, classy eh).....we borrowed an opener from Artini and set about the street looking for a good location.......about 50 feet from the hotel in a wee Warung seemed to

be ideal......the crowd started to gather and after about 2 hours we where packed in like sardines.....we moved off our great perch (cement wall) and headed for open air.......it was amazing that these kids created such great works of art.......do you suppose we could gather that many kids to work on a project at home? I wish!!!!

Our International small group of new friends, Kate from Vancouver, Brittany from Idaho, Scott from Melbourne, Michael from San Fransisco and Steve from somewhere in Australia and Barbara from Canada set out to look for an interesting place to dine.........never a dull moment when you find a new restaurant......needless to say it was both delicious and we had some laughs.......we ended the night by venturing in the pitch black to Monkey Forest Cemetary where they burn the Ogoh Ogohs.........flames shooting about 50 feet in the air.........cool and cool!

And that my friends, was

"the"

most awesome cultural events I have been to in my life........

now, to find something to follow that act will be an adventure.......

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