Eclipse

Today was quite an interesting day, with a lot of things being "commemorated" on this lovely Wednesday! First of all today is a public holiday here in Indonesia to celebrate the Balinese new year. It is called Nyepi, and it is celebrated by all Hindu devotees in Bali and its surrounding. It is a day where silence is observed in the morning (hence the name Nyepi, which is derived from the word sepi, meaning quiet) until the morning of the next day. I love the symbolism behind this day.

Silence is observed because Nyepi is a day of contemplation and self-reflection. The day before Nyepi is the exciting day where huge paper demonic figures called ogoh-ogoh are being paraded around towns and then eventually burned off. This symbolises the destruction of bad qualities to welcome the new year anew. Something like that. I would love to experience a day of Nyepi in Bali, although there won't be anything you can do since even businesses will be closed for the observation :P

Well, wishing a happy Balinese new year to those celebrating!

The next event is the rare solar eclipse that happened across central Indonesia today! My hometown didn't get the total eclipse, the sun was covered by 85% I think. I actually stayed up the whole night to witness this as the eclipse took place from 6.21 AM, and the peak happened at 7.21 AM. I didn't get to document this wonderful event, but I did witness it with the help of an old camera film and a shade haha. It's so amazing to see the sun being covered, the universe is such an amazing thing isn't it!

Anyway usually here we'll "see" the eclipse by seeing its reflection on a pail of water. We did the same thing today and I managed to take a nice photo of the moon leaving the sun, a few minutes after its peak moment. Okay I tried my best alright, but I hope you can still see it! So so amazing.

 I tried my best, an old camera film, a pocket camera and a pail of water

The next total solar eclipse in Indonesia will happen 33 years later. But if I remember correctly there'll be a solar eclipse (not sure total or partial) that can be seen in Singapore in 2019, I hope I can witness that as well. I was reading a National Geographic article last night about eclipses and the writer says that eclipses are great opportunities for us to witness the solar system in action.  

Couldn't agree less with him!

As for the last event well umm today is the 1st of the second lunar month! That's it hahaha. I did go to the temple today, whew was a bit late but not extremely late. I couldn't find a parking spot at the temple just now so I parked my car on this super awkward position and location. I was so worried throughout the whole chanting time cause I was afraid that a car might not be able to move or something. But thankfully nothing happened. Lesson learned, don't be late haha. Or look for a good spot first.

Alright that's all for this eventful day! Just another day that reminds us what a wonderful universe, planet and place we live in. Love the planet my friends, isn't it just amazing, so so amazing, to think of the whole universe? This wonderful blue dot that we can see from the moon.