The Beach Meaning for Balinese

For balinese beach have a special meaning. balinese hindu, use beach for caremony. for example when nyepi day come, balinese do a caremony at the beach called melasti (melis /mekiyis), Melasti is a purification ritual that takes place every year, usually in March or early April, precisely two or three days before the Bali-Hindu New Year day of Nyepi (the day of silence). The melasti ritual is marked by a long procession from village to the beach and vice versa. In the past, people carried all of the religious paraphernalia while walking( some are very heavy), but more recently wheeled-carts or even trucks are used to lighten the load.

other caremony that using beach is Nganyut, Nganyut is an ash-throwing ritual held by the sea which marks the end of a cremation ceremony. It usually take place in the late afternoon, or even at night, depending on the time the cremation ritual ends. For a high scale cremation, the ash-throwing is usually done a few hundred meters from the beach, so several canoes or boats are required to take the ashes out to sea. They must be thrown into the sea, as some believe the sea has every power to purify any impure matter. Others believe that it is a symbolic way to send them to the Gangga River, India's holy Hindu Ganges River, because that river also finishes at sea.

Although swimming is rare, it doesn't mean that Balinese people avoid the totally. In fact, one day called banyupinaruh is an auspicious day for beach swimming. It falls every six months in the Hindu-Bali calendar on the day after the special day of knowledge, honouring the Goddess Saraswati. It is considered the best day for Balinese to swim, usually at dawn to cleanse their bodies.

Now more and more Balinese see the beach as a place for recreation, especially for town folks with the fast growing population. Since tourism developed, many young Balinese have also learned how to surf and they often spend time on the beach, particularly in Kuta. Many of Kuta's youth have gained success as world class surf champions, whilst others work as beach patrol.