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On New Years Day, throughout the island, silence is observed and inactivity reigns supreme. Also called Nyepi day, the Balinese Day of Silence fall on the day following the dark moon of the spring equinox and open a new year of the Saka Hindu era, which began in 78 A.D.

On Nyepi day do not except to be able to do anything. You will have to stay in your hotel. No traffic is allowed, not only of cars but also of people, who have to stay in their houses. Light is keep to minimum, radio turned down, and no one work. Event love making this ultimate activity off all leisure-timers is not suppose to take place. Nor event attempted. The whole day is simply filled with the barking of a few dogs, the shrill of insects and is a long quiet day in the calendar of this bustling island. Nyepi is a religious event. In a Hindu society like Bali one believes in the Karmapala principle, according to which the dynamics of life and Man's individual fate are set in motion by "action". Man is in the midst of a Samsara cycle of incarnations, each of which is determined by the quality of his actions (karma) in his former existence. His "ideal" is thus to put the system to rest, for example, to control one's actions, and thus to subdue one's "demons". Only in such a way can man hope to achieve "deliverance" from his cycles of life (Moksa) and eventually merge with the Oneness of the Void, the Ultimate Silence of Sunya.

The Day of Silence is a symbolic replay of these philosophical principles. At the beginning of the year the world is "clean". In the day leading up to Nyepi all the effigies of the gods from the village temples have been taken to the river in long and colorful ceremonies. There they have been bathed by the Neptunus of Balinese lore, the gods Baruna, before being taken back to reside in their shrines of origin. The day before Nyepi villages also hold a large exorcist ceremony at the main village crossroad, the meeting place of demons. At night all the demons of the Bali world are let loose on the roads in carnival of fantastic monsters, the Ogoh ogoh.

The parade is held all over Bali after sunset. The banjar neighborhoods and hundreds of youth associations make their own Ogoh Ogoh monsters. Some are giants from the classical Balinese lore, while other are Guitarists, biker and other modern day icons. Complete with fangs, bulging eyes and scary hair, illuminated by torches and with the accompaniment of the most demonic gameland music (Bleganjur) of the Balinese repertoire, the surge suddenly by the hundreds from every street, some more horrible than the others. They are carried on the shoulders of four to thirty youths, jerking this way or that way so as to give the impression of a dance or suddenly turning in a circle, much to the fascination of the spectators. This is not a small procession, it last for three to four hours, as if Bali has an inexhaustible pool of demons.

Thus on Silence Day, the world is clean and everything start a new, with Man showing his symbolic control over himself and the force of the world. Hence the mandatory religious prohibitions of mati lelangon (no pleasure), mati lelungan (no journey) mati geni (no fire), and mati pekaryan (no work)