Religious life in Balinese villages is woven into a finely articulated social structure in which territory, kinship, and ritual duty are inseparable. The customary village, or *desa adat*, is anchored by key temples and household shrines, and membership in this moral community entails participation in collective worship. At the heart of this organization stands the *banjar*, the neighborhood council through which adult household heads deliberate, plan, and assume obligations for ceremonies. Through village assemblies, decisions are made about the scale, timing, and financing of festivals, always with reference to customary law (*adat*) that defines both rights and responsibilities. In this way, religious festivals are not occasional spectacles but recurring acts that reaffirm who truly belongs to the village.

The practical organization of festivals rests on a disciplined sharing of labor and resources. Community work, often described as *ngayah* or mutual assistance, is framed as voluntary in spirit yet socially obligatory in practice. Households contribute materials such as rice, flowers, fruits, animals, and ceremonial foods, while also providing the hands needed for cooking, decorating, and constructing ritual structures like *penjor* bamboo poles. Women typically gather in communal pavilions to prepare complex offerings—*banten*, *pejati*, or towering *gebogan*—while specialized groups handle music, dance, and other sacred arts. Through these patterned contributions, the village transforms everyday substances and skills into vehicles of devotion.

The timing and rhythm of these communal offerings are guided by intricate calendrical systems. Festivals, temple anniversaries (*odalan*), and other major rites are scheduled according to the 210‑day *Pawukon* cycle and the *Saka* lunar calendar, with priests and ritual authorities determining auspicious days. Each temple’s recurring festival mobilizes the entire community or designated subgroups, ensuring that the flow of ritual activity permeates the year. Leadership roles—village heads, temple priests, and adat councils—coordinate logistics, ritual sequence, and adherence to inherited forms, so that even highly elaborate ceremonies unfold with a sense of ordered inevitability.

Underlying these visible arrangements is a spiritual ethic that seeks harmony between humans, the divine, and the surrounding world. Offerings are directed to major Hindu deities in their local manifestations, to deified ancestors, and to more ambivalent forces that must be acknowledged and balanced. Participation in this system is both a spiritual obligation and a social marker: to be recognized as a full member of the village is to share in its ritual burdens and blessings. Through the ceaseless cycle of festivals and offerings, Balinese villages continually renew a sense of collective identity, aligning communal life with a cosmos understood as relational, reciprocal, and alive.