One Day A Year, This Island Hides
go along with: to accept a plan, rule, or idea, even when you do not really agree with it
Once a year, Bali spends the night making as much noise as it possibly can. Villagers carry huge monsters through the towns, and some are as tall as a two-story building. They are built from bamboo, paper and cloth, and later they are burned. The noise has a purpose. It is meant to drive the bad spirits out.
At 6 a.m. the next morning, everything stops. This is Nyepi, the Balinese Hindu new year. For 24 hours, nobody works, travels, or turns on a light. The airport closes, and even cellular internet is turned off. Village patrols walk the roads to check that everyone stays inside. Only two things may move: an ambulance, and a woman about to give birth.
The belief is simple. When the spirits fly over Bali, they see no lights, no engines and no people, so they leave the island alone. A whole island spends the day pretending nobody is home.
Visitors do not have to believe any of it. They only have to go along with it for one day.
In March, a 26-year-old Swiss tourist did not. Staff at his villa explained the rules. He walked to the beach anyway and filmed himself breaking the rules and mocking the sacred day. Then he posted the video on social media.
In August, a court sent him to prison for a year for the crime of insulting a religion.
Sample sentences
I didn’t like the plan, but everyone else was excited, so I went along with it.
The company extended our working hours last month. Most people weren’t happy about it but they went along with it anyway.
If you don’t want to do it, say so now. Don’t go along with something you’ll regret.
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Swiss tourist sentenced to a year in jail for insulting Bali’s sacred Day of Silence
