KUNINGAN (8th September 2012)

Another festival unique to Bali is Galungan and Kuningan – two festivals which book end a 10 day period when the spirits of defied ancestors descend to earth to visit their families. This is an intense period o

f temple activity and vast processions throng the streets with women carrying tall offerings of fruit on their heads by heading down to the beach purify the ancestral totems, which are kept in the household sanggah (temple). The temples themselves are cleaned to make them appropriately welcoming to the ancestors and long, flexible bamboo poles decorated with palm leaves known as Penjor are erected outside every household giving the streets a festive feel.