Things to Know About the Famous Balinese Daily Offerings, Canang Sari

One thing you will notice the moment you walk into the land of Bali is how devout Balinese people to their beliefs and traditions, despite innumerable new cultures they come across through foreigners. The strong smell of incense could almost be smelled anywhere you go, people wearing traditional attires on their way to pray in temples, or a small leaf basket placed everywhere that makes you wonder: what is this actually?

The answer is Canang Sari, a daily offering Balinese people crafted as a form of their gratitude to the Gods who have blessed them with blessings in their lives. Derived from Kawi language, ‘ca’ carries the meaning of ‘beautiful’ while ‘nang’ has a meaning of purpose. Canang Sari making is basically Balinese’s morning routine and it goes through a significant time making for the hand-made offerings to be done. It is made with coconut leaf, betel nut, and lime. Usually, the women will vacate their time in the morning to make it. However, as the land grows, ready-to-use Canang Sari are anywhere to find thus making it easier for Balinese people to pay their offerings every morning without missing a thing.

More than just a small square basket, Canang Sari holds much more meaning than it looks. From a glimpse, it consists of rice, colorful flowers, food, cigarettes, and incense. The various kinds of flowers from yellow, blue, green, and white are combined to represent relation to their Gods–God Iswara, God Brahma, God Mahadeva, and God Vishnu. Even the placement for these flowers is thought–white to the east, red to the south, yellow to the west, and blue or green to the north. Everything is combined and all that is left to do is to splatter holy water from a formerly dipped jepun flower before they start to pray, letting the incense deliver their thoughts and gratitude to the Gods.

For how much important Canang Sari values to the locals, everyone who comes and pay some interest in learning more can actually dive into the making process directly. Canang Sari classes are practically everywhere to find, some locals even might be willing to teach you directly. Accommodations are providing it for free to satisfy customer needs of activity, like the one offered in The Udaya.

Free Canang Sari class is provided for inhouse guests who request it. The class can be private or not, depending on your preference (but they say, the more the merrier!). Staff from The Udaya will guide you through the whole process, from folding the coconut leaves into a pretty woven, filling up the Canang Sari with the best explanation a local could offer, and allow you to bring back the Canang Sari as a piece of memory that somewhere around this world, beautiful traditions still exist to the hearts of those who believed in.