Honoring the Gods

All artistic activities such as dancing, painting and music make the Gods happy. And that is why we are all artist to some extent. To please them, we craft very pretty decorations out of palm tree leaves, and other offerings that we display for them on a daily basis. You will probably see very young children practicing cutting the young leaves of coconut tree. They are very cheerful and never hurt themselves. Among the Gods that we celebrate, Brahma is the one of moving metal objects, like motorbikes or cars… His appointed day is called Tumpek Landep, but whenever we buy a new vehicle, we also have a ceremony in its honor so that the vehicle will be protected.

So don’t be surprised if you see vehicle on the road all decorated with pretty offerings, or priest sprinkling them with holy water. There also a day for masks and puppets, and a day for books and objects of knowledge: Saraswati. On that day, one mustn’t read or study! And another day for the trees: in south of the island, we dress them up with the traditional outfit and hit them symbolically with an axe to let the Gods know that we have presented them with offerings. And as we have lots of Gods, we are not short occasions to celebrate them! You will most likely come upon procession of woman forming a long line, and carrying pyramid-shaped offerings on their heads. They may celebrating a full moon, or a black moon, or the anniversary of the first inauguration of one of the village temples. They are walking to the temple to have their offering blessed. These consists of fruits, cakes, eggs and sometime even entire chickens, tied around a banana tree trunk. They present these to God, offerings them the essence of the object in homage. But once the ceremony is over, they take them home to be eaten in peace. Otherwise, it would really be a waste, as these are beautiful offerings and everything is delicious.