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Blessed Rainy Day blues

26 September 2008

Unlike the previous years, Thrue, the Blessed Rainy Day, was a completely different affair for Sonam, a corporate employee and a keen practitioner of Thrue.

She was in a holiday mood but she had to drag herself to work because it was no longer declared a government holiday.

She did not feel the pinch last year and the year before as Blessed Rainy Day fell on holidays. “Last year, before starting my day with thup (porridge) and suja (butter tea), I always took bath but, this year, since I had to go to work, I just had tea and fried rice and rushed to work,” she said.

Previously, most Bhutanese people waited for Thrue to come and celebrated grandly. Some people celebrated playing khuru and archery. This year, some villagers in Thimphu did play archery while most were busy working in offices.

Like Sonam, most officer-goers skipped thup and suja because they had duties to attend. Some of the civil servants had not even realised that it was Blessed Rainy Day.

In an earlier interview, late Lama Sanga, a historian and the former Principal of ILCS, had said that people started having thup on blessed rainy day because this was the only day in the whole year that Zhabdrung had thup.

This day is also considered good for bathing because the water on this day is believed to wash away one’s sins and diseases. All the natural water sources in the whole world is said to turn into holy water this day.

“The water is considered holy for a week,” said Dorji Gyeltshen, a Buddhist book writer.
Some locals believe that this day also symbolises the retreating monsoon. “People say this is the last day of monsoon and hereafter it won’t rain,” said Dorji. People, especially from the east, feast during Blessed Rainy Day but not many people celebrated this year.
Some people had forgotten that it was Thrue on September 22 this year. They are concerned that the age-long tradition and belief of taking bath and having thup may also be forgotten along with the significance of the day as it is no more reflected in the calendar.

Officials in the Ministry of Home and Culture admitted that a lot of people had questioned them on why Thrue was no longer considered a government holiday but said that they did not want to comment on the matter.

By Tandin Pem

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Posted by Bhutan Observer · Filed Under About Town 

Comments

One Response to “Blessed Rainy Day blues”

  1. Dorji on September 26th, 2008 5:40 pm

    I am very sad to know that the Blessed Rainy Day is no longer an official holiday. Also, I fail to understand the reason for not considering the day as an official holiday. The reason given by the MOHCA is more of dictation than justification.

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