Melasti is a Hindu Balinese purification ceremony and ritual, which, according to the Balinese calendar, is held several days prior to the ''

Nyepi Nyepi, also known as Day of Silence, is a Balinese people, Balinese holiday held every ''Isakawarsa'' ("new year") according to the Balinese saka calendar, Balinese calendar, and it can be traced as far back as 78 A.D.Hindus in Indonesia, especially in

Bali Bali (English:; Balinese language, Balinese: ) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller o ...

. Melasti was meant as the ritual to cleanse the world from all the filth of sin and bad karma through the symbolic act of acquiring the '' Tirta Amerta'', "the water of life". Melasti Culture

The Melasti ceremony is held on the edge of the

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

to purify oneself of all the bad things in the past and throw them into the

ocean The ocean is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of Earth. The ocean is conventionally divided into large bodies of water, which are also referred to as ''oceans'' (the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian Ocean, Indian, Southern Ocean ...

. In Hindu belief, water sources such as

lakes A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from t ...

and

sea A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

water, are considered the source of life''(Tirta Amrita)''. In addition to performing prayers, during the Melasti ceremony, all sacred objects which belong to a

temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

, such as ''pralingga'' or ''pratima'' of Lord Ida Sanghyang Widi Wasa, and all of the sacred equipment, are cleaned and purified.

References

{{reflist Ceremonies in Indonesia