Culture

Birthday

Although we provide the children’s birthdates, other than determining when the children start school, birthdays are not particularly important to the children themselves.  Balinese children do not celebrate their birthday every twelve months as most westerners do.

Of more cultural importance is the relationship between date of birth and important religious celebrations. For example; when following the 210 day religious calendar, a birthday several days after Galungan will always be celebrated several days after Galungan (irrespective of the date) and there may be two celebrations in a single calendar year.

Hindu-Bali Naming

In Bali your name is very important for the development of your character. At birth a personal name is decided upon for the baby.  Many people may not know the name of someone else because he or she is more likely to be called by a nickname, by his or her birth order name or caste name.

The most common birth order naming system is that of the ‘Wayan – Made – Nyoman – Ketut’ cycle.

If the family has more than four children, then the cycle begins again, with a different personal name.

There are, however, other names to indicate order of birth. The first born could be called Putu or Gede, the second Nengah or Kadek, and the third Komang or Koming.

Also, a name is given according to a person’s caste.  In the Hindu-Bali system there are four castes;

Brahmana – Priestly caste. Names are prefixed by ‘Ida Bagus’ for males and ‘Ida Ayu’ for females

Ksatria – Warrior or ruling caste. Names are prefixed by ‘Tjokorde’ for males or ‘Tjokorde Istri’ for females. ‘Anak Agung’ also indicates a person of this caste.

Wesia – Blacksmith or tradesman caste. Names are prefixed by ‘Gusti’ or ‘Dewa’ for males and ‘Desak’ for females.

Sudra – Everybody else (i.e about 95% of Balinese). As well as using the birth order names above, they are prefixed by ‘I’ for males, and ‘Ni’ for females.

Food Parcels

As of 1 July 2018 we will cease offering payment for food parcels via the project.

Unfortunately, due to more strict tax deductibility requirements, the provision of food parcels falls outside the scope of allowable activities.