Bali: Bunting, Bono, burning and silence
Sometimes the gods are with you and it's good, sometimes they are and it's not. Whether by calendrical coincidence or celestial guidance, we ended up in Bali for a festival that combines elements of Halloween, Bonfire Night, New Year, a county fair and a nice quiet day off. These are all good things. Turns out that the Balinese New Year (today, folks) is marked by a Hindu ceremonial day called Nyepi. As with most cultures, the old year is kicked out of the door with a party, but here it's a party with a difference. Under the last dusk of the year, the locals gather in a public place - in Ubud it's the football field, fringed by the usual globally-recognisable concession stalls selling balloons and illuminated plastic tat - and are joined by their demons. The ogoh-ogoh are fantastical effigies, some so sizeable (up to about 20ft) that they require pole-bearing harbingers to walk before them lifting the power lines that cross the streets. Representing the frequently n