Happy Blessed Rainy Day

Thruebab- The Bhutanese Social Holiday

The Blessed Rainy Day literally means the flow of blessed cleansing water. In layman's term it is called 'thruebab'-the holy precipitation shower from heavenly Buddha Nangpar Nangzoed on the earth. It falls on 15th day of 8th Month in the Buddhist Calendar. This year, Bhutanese are going to celebrate thrue on 22nd September. That is exactly on 9th day of 8th month of Wood Female Sheep Year, 2015. On this day, people keep aside their daily bustle of activities and come together to celebrate. In a year it is one of the social occasions for the Bhutanese to take a day leave. Similarly, the people from Ladakh in India, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia and some parts of China observed the day in their own way.

It is believed that during the Blessed Rainy Day, the whole water bodies on the earth turns into a holy water that acquired elixir like potency to cleanse sentient beings of all negatives and misdeeds of the past bad karma. As soon as the morning comes, people takes bath to purify all their defilements and demerits either from the direct tap water or bucketful of stored water.

I could vividly remember when I was a boy, a night before 'thruebab' my mother used to tell us to keep a bucket with some varieties of flowers outside the house. At night the blessed rain showers and bucket will be full of holy and purified water. Early in the morning she will make us to wash our face and take bath. We also offered the collected holy water as water offering to the god in the altar with the burning incense. My mother has a strong belief that the holy and purified water on 'thruebab' will erase the negative obstacles of us and pick up faster while in learning.

In our context, 'thrue' is a day marking the end of the monsoon season. It marks the end of the farming season and the beginning of the harvest season. As the 'thrue' is observed as a national holiday; the Government offices, Schools and Institutions, and Private Organisations remain closed for the day. Families, relatives and friends from the far distance and nearby gather together to have foods and drinks. Traditionally, families gather together to celebrate the day together since the permanence of their lives is not sure. Together they pray and make a wish as they will meet again later. 

After the foods and drinks the day was celebrated with the various traditional games like archery, khuru, and doegor. The team are formed from different villages and match are conducted where it promotes the preservation of culture and tradition which is one of the pillars of Gross National Happiness. But it was seen as taken blase by some people because of their work load pressure. Our younger one will forget soon and coming generation will never know as such occasion was there before,in turn this may lose our culture and the identity. 
On this very important occasion let me take a privilege to wish you all my dear parents, relatives and friends a "Happy Blessed Rainy Day"!