This tradition is an unusal and unique in Bali. This event or ritual occurs solely in Munggu Village during Kuningan. Kuningan in Bali takes place every 210 days on the Balinese Caka calendar is a great time to experience real Balinese Culture.
This ceremony is always performed by the members of Munggu Village, in Mengwi Sub-District, Badung Regency. In tradition, as a symbol of victory, Mekotek is also an attempt to deny evil spirit that happened to the village decades ago. The only way to witness this ceremony is by going to the village, as it is the only village, as it is the only village that performs the ceremony every 6 months.
Mekotek or also known as Ngerebek or Mekotekan actually started in 1934 in the village of Munggu, and real spears were used at the time unlike the blunt ended wooden sticks made of wood came into use in part due to the colonial Dutch being afraid of an uprising and having real, more dangerous spears used againts them.
During the ceremony. Villagers are divided into several groups of 50 people, where each participants brings a 2.5 meters pole from a skinned branch, so they can stick so many involved, the sound of the poles hitting each other is quite loud, creating the sound of “tek” (indonesian spelling of imitating the knocking poles’ sounds), and thus is why this ritual is called “Mekotek”. The participants will be all wearing Balinese attire especially Udeng.
The battle of Mekotek sees two of these groups of opponents attempting to force dwon the oppostion cone of sticks which usually result in people being crushed siwn below the collapsed cone of sticks. From time to time, a stick fighting participant will climb the triangular shaped cone of sticks to issue a battle cry before the two groups clash. It’s a fun event which rarely witness any injury or hard feelings amongst opposing forces or supporters and has more of a party atmosphere.
Finall, when the event has finished, the procession proceeds calmly with participants and spectators and supporters parading to the opposite end of the village to another temple before ultimately disbanding. The Mekotek tradition is hoped to prevent catastrophes and bring prosperity and takes place on the holy Kuningan Day due to an unfortunate event in the past which brought disease to Munggu Village, resulting in death and crop failures.
While also after a series of ceremonies take place, overall participants headed to a water source that is in the northern part of the village. Holy shield and all the ceremonies of sacred water container were cleaned here.