Penjor are really tall bamboo poles covered in decoratively worked natural fibers like straw and leaves that the Hindu in Bali put out for their Galungan celebration. It’s kind of like their version of Christmas trees.
Galungan is a celebration of the victory of virtue (Dharma) over evil (Adharma). It includes things like roast pigs, prayer, etc, It takes place in September, so we were already home before things heated up. Still, there were plenty of penjor around already.
Penjor represent bounty. They are always made from natural items, generally things that are harvested like rice, straw, coconut leaves, etc. It can take quite a while to work them into shape. They can be purchased, but the price might be the equivalent of two or three hundred dollars.
Sometimes there would be a place built into the lower portion where offerings can be made. At one point our guide finished showing us cloves that she took from a neighboring tree. When she was done, she carefully tucked it into the nearest penjor.
Although there were a lot of little rumblings of the holidays to come, the thing we encountered most readily were the panjor. Other rumblings were things like a lot of people making special trips to pools and springs to undergo purification ceremonies.
Apparently it’s a major holiday in Bali. Too bad we missed it.
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