The Balinese Saka year (lunar new year) celebrated in March or April – Nyepi is the traditional day of silence in which Balinese Hindu celebrants are meant to fast, self-reflect and meditate between the hours of 6am and 6am the following morning. It is also during this period that the entire island literally shuts down and an eerie silence and darkness befall Bali as no one on the island is allowed to do any work, go outside of their homes, use any type of light or make any noise. This is said to make Bali seem uninhabited so as to trick any evil spirits into also abandoning the empty island. The day and night prior to Nyepi is another story. Pengrupukan is a period of cleansing and casting out evil from the island by way of blood offerings, general noisy pandemonium (said to bring attention to the offerings laid out for the spirits) and Bhuta Yajna rituals in which demonic Ogoh-Ogoh effigies, elaborately constructed from styrofoam and papier-mache, are paraded through crossroads by youthful members of each banjar (neighborhood association) in Bali. The supposed reasons for this are: to confuse the evil spirits that like to congregate at crossroads by spinning the Ogoh-Ogoh round and round at these junctions, and in modern times, to show up the rival banjar by having a much better Ogoh-Ogoh than theirs and then celebrate with copious amounts of arak (rice alcohol). The Ogoh-Ogoh custom is traditionally followed by a Ngrupuk ritual in which the effigies (along with the bad spirits trapped inside them) are set aflame, after which everyone retires to their homes to celebrate the incoming new year in quietude. While most ex-pats either leave Bali for the Gili Islands or hunker down in hotels and villas, there is something to be said for witnessing the spectacle of Bhuta Yajna and then observing the day of silence...in silence. A mystical Balinese experience in itself.