Early Saturday morning on 24 January 2004, I took a tram to Slotermeer, a neighbourhood located in the western part of Amsterdam. For the first time in my fieldwork, I was on my way to attend the Galungan-Kuningan, a pan-Balinese festival that takes place once every 210 days according to the Balinese uku calendar.1 This festival celebrates the victory of virtue (dharma) over evil (adharma). In Bali, celebrations of Galungan-Kuningan take place at all temples, accompanied with particularly rich offerings. Galungan is the first day of the ten-day festival during which it is believed that deities and ancestral spirits descend to earth to be honoured and to receive gifts. The tenth day, known as Kuningan, is devoted to honouring the ancestral spirits. On Kuningan, special food is prepared, such as yellow rice (kuning), and new decorations are placed around the house, together with elaborate offerings. The focal part of the ceremony, besides prayers and elaborate offerings, is the communal slaughtering of pigs and the consumption of lawar – a cooked mixture of vegetables, spices, and pig's blood. The celebration in Bali is accompanied by numerous Barong performances. Leo Howe (1980: 234) observes that Galungan is a bhuta yadnya – a sacrifice for demonic forces.

Unlike in Bali, where the celebration runs for ten days, in Amsterdam it took place on one day over a weekend. This year it was on a Saturday, on the day of Kuninga, and was organized in a small building hired from a primary school in the suburb of Slotermeer on the day of Kuningan. The small building, commonly used for school celebrations and community events, consisted of one large room where, for the purpose of the festival, the Balinese people had built a portable altar, a kitchen, and a smaller area to serve as a changing room. This was an event organized by Banjar Suka Duka that was not publicly advertised but was open for non-Balinese attendees as long as they followed a dress code to allow them to participate in the Balinese-Hindu ceremony. Arriving at the venue, I paid the €12.50 entrance fee and was immediately instructed to proceed to the dressing room in order to change into a kebaya (blouse) and sarong (wrap-around skirt). The small room was crowded with large bags packed with attire for the ceremony, plastic flowers resembling those that grow in Bali, and make-up.