Blessed Rainy Day in Bhutan Date in the current year: September 22, 2024
Blessed Rainy Day is a public and religious holiday celebrated in the Kingdom of Bhutan during the rainy season. It typically falls in September in the Gregorian calendar. In some localities, this holiday is considered even more important than Losar (Tibetan New Year).Blessed Rainy Day marks the end of the wet season. This traditional holiday has been celebrated for centuries, but it was proclaimed a public holiday relatively not long ago. On the occasion of the holiday, all schools, government offices, and institutions are closed.
The festival is celebrated with purification rituals. The Bhutanese people believe that on this day, all natural water bodies in the country become sanctifying. So they take outdoor baths to be cleansed of accumulated bad karma.
The most auspicious time for the purification ritual is determined by astrologists in the service of Bhutan's senior religious hierarch (the Je Khenpo). For their calculations, they use the Bhutanese lunar calendar, but they have never disclosed the exact formula.
Citizens, who are unable to take a bath at the exact hour, typically rise before dawn to at least wash their face with the sanctifying water. In the morning, Bhutanese families gather for a traditional meal of thup (a type of porridge).
* date for 2024
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- Public Holidays, Religious Holidays
Country
- Bhutan
Tags
- Blessed Rainy Day in Bhutan, holidays in Bhutan, public holiday, religious holiday, rainy season