ADDITIONAL
NOTES
The
Calendar. The Solar-Lunar Year. The Hindu saka (Sanskrit:
qaka) year by which the mountain people, the Bali Aga, still
reckon time and set the dates for their temple festivals
is divided into twelve months (sasdh) the names of which
are simply the Balinese numbers from one to ten: 1, kasa;
2, karo; 3, katiga; 4, kapat; 5, kalima; 6, kanam; 7, kapitu;
8, kauhi; 9, kasanga; 10, kadasa; with two additional names,
desta and sada, to make up the twelve months.
These two last names are corruptions of the Sanskrit names
of the eleventh and twelfth months.The
ritual Sanskrit names of the months are, as the Balinese
pronounce them: s'rawana, badra wada, asudjc, kartika, margasira,
posya, maga, palguna, madumasa, wesaka, djiesta, and asada.
These months consist of 29 or 3o days counted from each
new moon. The year has either 354, 355, or 356 days, a difference
of q to ii days from the true solar year. This is corrected
by the addition of an extra month (saseh nampeh) every thirty
months, corresponding to about two and a half of our years.
There are thirty lunar days in each month, but one day is
jumped over every 63 days (nine weeks of seven days) to
correlate them with the zq or 30 solar days in each month
Nyepi, the most important yearly feast, the purification
of the entire island, marks the spring equinox and is the
only national festival of the saka calendar. It falls on
the first day, the " dark moon " of the ninth month (tilem-kasanga),
despite which it is regarded as the beginning of the year.
The nyepi ceremony here described, which took place on the
17th of March 1934, marked the end of the saka year 1855
and usherec. in the new Year 1856.
The
Javanese-Balinese Year. The wuku year probably came into
use at the time of Madjapahit's domination of South Bali,
and today it is the system used universally in Bali, except
for the mountaineer Bali Agas, who still reckon their feasts
by new and full moons. The wuku is simply divided into weeks
(wukus) and does not obey any astronomical or other natural
rules.
Of
the ten simultaneous weeks contained in a wuku year, the
most important is the week of seven days, corresponding
to ours, the names of each day being, like our days, dedicated
to the planets: Sunday (redite), the Sun; Monday (soma),
the Moon; Tuesday (anggara). Mars; Wednesday (budda), Mercury;
Thursday (wrespati), Jupiter; Friday (sukra), Venus; Saturday
(sanistjara), Saturn.
There
are thirty seven-day weeks in a wuku year (sinta, landap,
wukir. kurantil, tolti, gumreg, wariga, warigadian, djulung
wangi, djulung sungsang, dunggulan, kuninggan, langkir,
madang siha, djulung pudjut. pahang, wurkulut, marakeh,
tambir, madang kungkang, mahatal, udjeh. menahil, prang
bakat, bala muki, ugti, wayang, kulawu, dukut, and watii
gunung.
The
origin of the names of these weeks is told in the legend
of Sinta, a woman who became pregnant after she dreamed
she slept with a holy man, giving birth to a beautiful child.
One day Sinta lost her temper when the boy became unruly
and struck him, wounding him on the head. The boy ran away
and his grieved mother searched for him in vain for years
afterwards. The grown boy had in time become the powerfra
ruler of the country of Giling Wesi, where he was known
as Watu Gunung.
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