Balinese Tradition Dress Code

There was a ceremony held in our family “Pura” (Balinese temple/shrine) yesterday. We, especially for the women, are told to wear White “Kebaya” (Indonesian woman’s blouse) as a dress code. Considering this is a God related activity then wear something white must be apt. It was such along time I live outside Bali (Bandung & Jakarta), approximately for 8 years. So my kebaya collection is kinda out of date. I only have one white kebaya (favorite one) and I don’t intended to wear it. Do you know what happened to stuff with “favorite” status? It’s often to be used! So that people will recognize you because of what you wear not your face :D.
I went to the Pura with orange kebaya. Just as I entered the gateway, the entire women on the range of my view are wearing white!! Ouch....I though people will not paid close attention for dress code. And I was wrong. Fortunately, I bring my outspoken nieces, so nobody comment on my appearance (this is positive thinking that possibly wrong...again). They’re too busy with my nieces.

There are several rituals we have to perform. One of them is to welcome the holy water that is taken from water source. Suddenly when we do this ritual which is held outside the temple, hard rain came. It’s not appropriate to pour out to save ourselves from rain. We’re all wet! Actually I love it :D. Nature joined us. Can you imagine to women/girls that must spent 1-2 hours in dressing and wearing make up? They’re become a little bit messy because of 20 minutes rain.
After finishing the holy water welcoming, some people go home to change including me. My home is just about 4 blocks from the temple. I change my kebaya with the white one. I don’t wanna feel like “a fish swimming in the wrong pool”. Once again I entered the gateway, and now I saw a different view. Some women don’t wear white kebaya as the result of the rain disaster :).
At the end, it looks like I’m the ones who follow the dress code. Rain can made everything up side down.

I’m too relaxed when dealing with Balinese tradition dress code. Maybe I don’t feel comfort to wear it, especially brocade kebaya. Thanks God, brocade is not a trend to date! Once I wear an office shirt to replace kebaya in a semiformal ceremony. The fact is I want to see God here not to please people, right? I am not saying I write this post to stand up against tradition. In my opinion, you have a right to do anything to achieve goal as long as you don’t break the law and you don’t inflict people.I’ll try to change this habit but I don’t promise a thing here. Don’t let complexities blur the essential thing that should be achieved.