"Like Christmas, the real origins of Galungan and Kuningan in Bali have become shrouded in a bright and colorful blanket woven of myth, selected strands of history, and recently, specifically in the Balinese case, a few threads of the now popular Indian-ization added to the so-called (since the 1950s) Hindu Bali religion. For the soundbite junkies, we could just say it is the time that the divine descends upon the island and blesses it and its people.
In what could be a religious parallel, Christmas was ostensibly a Roman pagan rite (Saturnalia) that marked the winter solstice and then became subsumed by Christianity around the 4th century in a calculated move to bring in pagans to the church. Similarly, in some instances Galungan has been politicized by weaving in sectarian myths surrounding defeat of the King Maya Denawa of Balingkang near Kintamani. It is touted as the “triumph of good over evil”. Even today, despite the fact that various Balinese experts have already debunked this subsumption of Galungan (one Balinese Pedanda high priest I know simply snorted: “Politics” when I brought up the subject of Maya Denawa), the myth has stuck in various tourist brochures and supposedly “informative” blogs. And like Christmas, there are aspects of Galungan which are becoming somewhat commercial.
Though it might not be possible to precisely pinpoint the actual origin, there are a couple of obvious things which we can verify about Galungan, which differ from the solar season aspect of Christmas. It falls on the pawukon calendar, the ‘calendar of weeks’ consisting of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10 day weeks. Some of these weeks are more important in practical life than others. For example the 3, 5,7 day weeks regulate much of the ritual activity surrounding farming, markets, and yes magic. The 7 day weeks (wuku) are dominant in this calendar, there are 30 of them altogether, each with its own name."
Read the full piece at
http://ubudnowandthen.com/galungan-kuningan-cycles-within-cycles/?fbclid=IwAR2gKeiNM2IfJZd-QqdmTyOwL6euQPcmyzk8XvTMdwhj8fZOzCNwfR_zDHA
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