For as long as anyone can recall, Ogoh-ogoh parades in Bali have been synonymous with the eve of Nyepi – the day of absolute silence that marks the transition from one year to the next on the Balinese calendar.
Ogoh-ogoh are giant paper–mâché floats created by community banjars to be paraded on the shoulders of young men through the streets of the Island of Bali in Mardi Gras fashion on the night before New Year’s Day – the day of absolute silence “Nyepi.”
Fiercely competitive, Ogoh-ogoh are prepared during the weeks leading up to Nyepi by the young men of villages across the Island of Bali to be carried on the shoulders of their creators in a riotous…