AP PHOTOS: Balinese celebrate New Year with firefights, sword-piercing and a sacred Day of Silence

Airports closed for 24 hours, the internet was turned off and streets were empty as the predominantly Hindu island of Bali in Muslim-majority Indonesia marked its New Year with an annual Day of Silence as part of six days of extensive rituals. The Day of Silence, locally known as Nyepi, is observed each year on the day after the new moon in March starting at 6 a.m. The island's world-famous beaches and all of its public spaces are devoid of people, except for special patrols to ensure that silence is observed. Phone companies switched off the mobile internet on the idyllic “island of the gods,” which is home to more than 4 million people, and Balinese stayed indoors, covering their windows and keeping lights off, for the sacred day of reflection, which fell on Monday this year. During Nyepi, tourists on the island are asked to stay inside their hotels, and television and radio broadcasts are halted. In past years, foreign and domestic tourists have been arrested for wandering...