Ogo-Ogo

 

The Balinese People have a great Hindu festival called Ogo-Ogo. On this day, they scare away all the evil spirits. Jagaraga, the village of the Oasis is also a Balinese village which is why I experienced it first hand with the children. Every year the people of the village build big paper maché statues and they have to be scary and ugly and sometimes really gory. The scarier the better! These statues are supposed to scare the evil spirits away. After the parade through the village with those huge statues, which is kind of like carnival in Germany, they burn the statues and with them the evil spirits.

It’s a merry festival despite all those scary figures. The kids had been waiting for this day for months and some of them even made their own Ogo-Ogo!

We decorated the Oasis. It was closed on Ogo-Ogo because it is a national holiday.

Most of the decorations are made of bamboo leafes.

This Ogo-Ogo was also made by kids from the Oasis.

This one was made by Ida Wayan, Made G and some of their friends. Ida Wayan and Made G are students of mine at the Oasis.

A very cool Ogo-Ogo fighting a snake.

The scariest one, if you asked me!

Astawa and the mayor of Jagaraga played the drums.

This is a rather modern Ogo-Ogo riding on a motorcycle.

For this special day, the Oasis made a banner for the market place.

Celebrating after the parade.