The two big ones — Galungan and Nyepi — are the ones most families encounter in their first three months, and the ones that decide whether you understand Bali at the end of the year, or whether you only visited it.

Galungan — the moment Bali changes

Galungan falls every 210 days, so there are usually two Galungans in any year-long stay. The festival marks the victory of dharma over adharma — order over chaos. In practical terms: the spirits of ancestors return to earth for ten days, and Bali prepares for them.

You will know Galungan is coming a week before it arrives. Every village will install penjor — long, curved bamboo poles decorated with rice, fruit and palm-leaf weaving — outside every house. The penjor leans towards the road, bowing in welcome. By the morning of Galungan, the whole village is lined with them. Families dress in white and ceremonial clothing and visit their family temples to make offerings.

If you're invited

Wear white or pale colours, a sarong, and a sash. We provide both — fitted to each family member, in Balinese cloth — in your first month, so you have them ready. Bring an offering box; we will arrange one. Take your shoes off when entering the temple. Sit when the locals sit. Don't photograph the priest at the moment of prayer. Don't sit higher than the priest. The rest will be shown to you, gently, by whoever is hosting.

Nyepi — the Day of Silence

Nyepi is harder to describe to anyone who hasn't done one. For twenty-four hours each year, the entire island stops. No flights in or out of Bali. No lights on after dark. No leaving the house. No fires. No noise. The streets empty. The airport closes. The point is to convince any lingering evil spirits that Bali is uninhabited, so they pass over the island.

It is the most unusual day you will spend in your year.

The night before Nyepi, you will see the ogoh-ogoh parade — the largest collective papier-mâché project on earth, where every village parades enormous demonic statues through the streets and burns them at the end of the night. Children love it. Make a plan to see your village's ogoh-ogoh; we'll tell you where it gathers and when.

The day itself: you stay in your villa. Most families read more than usual, swim, play long board games, talk. The internet stays on, and most international schools post a Nyepi day-of activity for children to do at home. The next morning, the island starts again as if nothing happened. Children who do Nyepi in Bali remember it for the rest of their lives.

The smaller ceremonies

In between the headline festivals, your village will run dozens of smaller ceremonies — odalan (the anniversary of each temple's founding), tooth-filings, weddings, cremations. Some are private; many are open. A family who has been welcomed into the village by month four or five tends to be invited to two or three by the end of the year.

"In Bali, being included in a ceremony is one of the deepest gestures of welcome there is. Show up. Wear what we suggest. Bring what we tell you to bring. Stay long enough to mean it."

The year after

Most of our alumni families return to Bali for at least one Galungan after their year ends. Some come back for several. The village remembers them. Their warung lady remembers them. Their school teachers remember them. The Bali you know as a holidaymaker forgets you the moment you leave. The Bali you know as a family during a ceremony does not.

— The Annum