Third Otonan, One of the Important Ceremony for Balinese Child

Otonan is a Balinese Birthday, what is unique is that instead of coming every year like the normal birthday, it is celebrated every 210 days or almost every six months in the Balinese calendar system.

Every Balinese child will only find several important days which will be celebrated with some kind of offerings. In their 42 days after they were born, 3 months after they were born, Otonan or Telung Oton which is the third Balinese Birthday according to the Balinese calendar system.

Why they are important because we believe that newborn children are still pure, and we do the ceremony to minimize the bad influence which might be lurking to disturb the child's development.

Several days ago, my nephew was celebrating his Telung Oton . we were preparing the offerings that were needed in the ceremony. The offering is quite elaborate, with several different sets of offerings are being made for the day.

We also prepared a sucking pig for that day. It is also part of the offerings needed for the ceremony. Not like most of the Indonesians who are Moslems, we Balinese are Hindus, and suckling pig is part of any big ceremonies and offering made by the Balinese.

The ceremony was held in my family's temple. the ceremony was led by a priest who is also still part of my big family. Luckily the ceremony went very smoothly because right after the ceremony was finished, heavy rain falls.