When is Blessed Rainy Day?
Blessed Rainy Day (Thrue Bab) is a non-working public holiday in Bhutan observed on the Autumn Equinox.
This holiday arrives at the end of the monsoon and farming season and the beginning of the harvest season in Bhutan.
Traditions of Blessed Rainy Day
Blessed Rainy Day is considered an especially holy day on the Buddhist calendar.
The name of the holiday isn't just to thank the rain that fell as part of the monsoon season that helps make a successful harvest, it is much more literal than that. It is believed that during the day, there is a special time when all water in the Himalayan kingdom is imbued with a special elixir, sprinkled from heaven by Buddha.
Legend has it that eons ago there was a Buddha called Dipenkara. After he passed away, a statue to him was erected in an ocean by the King of the Nagas (mythical serpent beings) as a symbol of worship.
As soon as the construction was completed a rain of ambrosia fell upon the statue as an offering of the King of Devas (heavenly beings). This ambrosia had the power to cure all medical conditions and since then, once every year, this sacred rain falls again to cleanse the world.
Each year Astrologers will determine the exact hour when this auspicious event takes place. On the eve of Blessed Rainy Day, people will fill buckets of water and leave them out overnight to make sure the water gets sanctified at the right time.
Then it is a tradition for everyone to take a bath with the blessed water to eliminate diseases, bad karma, bad luck, and other negative influences.
After the refreshing and holy bath is over, the Bhutanese will take part in traditional sports such as archery or "khuru”, a traditional Bhutanese dart game that is played outside where large darts are hurled at wooden posts.
In some parts of central Bhutan, Blessed Rainy Day is celebrated as the new year.
On this holiday, Government offices, schools, and institutions are closed for the day.
The government first made this day a public holiday in the 1980s. The holiday was removed from the public holiday list in 2007 as part of several revisions. Despite its change in status, people still took the day off, so the Bhutanese home minister reinstated the holiday in 2008.
