Wherever you travel in the world each Hash House Harriers is going to have different traditions that they utilize in the running of their Hash but there is one thing I have noticed at many different places in the world that sticks: the utilization of the bedpan for the Hares (the people who made the trail you are running) for drinking of beer while on the ice at a ceremony.
This is basically the same thing that everyone else is put through as far as the friendly ribbing that is done to everyone and no, that bedpan is not dirty. In fact, because it is a bedpan it is very likely much cleaner than the other containers that are used, at least at our events.
It really doesn't matter how good of a job anyone did at a particular event, they are still going to get put on the ice and berated by the others because that is just what is done. Once you try it you will start to understand that picking on one another is actually what brings us closer to one another. I have made lifelong friendships with many people that are in our local Hash and I have also stayed in touch with others that I met abroad while doing a Hash with them.
The idea here is never to humiliate anyone and even less, to make them sick by having them drink out of something dirty.
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Just like how anyone with new shoes will be made to drink a beer out of them, this tradition began who-knows-where but it stuck and now it is just something that is done.
The reality of the bedpan is that it has become, at least here in Chiang Mai, sort of an honor to be forced to drink out of it since this is only ever really enforced upon people who have actually done something pretty profound such as be a GM of the Hash or having set the trail which is a lot of work. Basically, if you are ever offered the bedpan this is not a punishment, it is recognition for having done a really good job, no the other way around.
We are a silly bunch of men and women, and we recognize the accomplishments of others by giving them what appears to be the opposite of an award when they are recognized. The guy featured in the horribly pixelated first picture is one of the most important cogs in the Chiang Mai machine, and he is absolutely instrumental in the operations of what we do up here.
you can expect to see a lot of strange things going on at our events and this is part of the fun of the Hash. All of us are in our older years outside of a few younger folks that participate, and this is just one of our many methods of staying young.
We are still doing at least 3 runs per week here in Chiang Mai, and the chapters in Pattaya, Bangkok, and Phuket are active weekly as well. For full details of upcoming events that all are welcome to attend can be found at our official website
On On!
