So, here's what happens in a Hash Circle...
First off, the Religious Advisor will call everyone to order, and he will then hand out various 'punishments', or 'down-downs', for certain
'sins' that might have occurred on trail. A 'down-down' is a beer, usually about 0.01 or 0.02 litres, so not full beers or anything, and they need
to be consumed in one go (if possible) by the person receiving said punishment at the appropriate time.
As for the sins, these can be pretty much anything, but common ones are 'being a race-ist', which is the term we apply to runners who are actually
competitive and try to race one another, 'pissing on trail', which I think is self explanatory, 'wearing new shoes', which may involve the
perpetrator to be forced to drink a 'down down' from his/her actual shoes, and 'shortcutting', which again is a fairly clear accusation.
The person/people who set the trail can also be punished for not marking the trail well enough, or perhaps for marking it too well and making it too
easy to follow. 'Virgins' are also invited into the Circle and will have everything explained to them in a clear and precise manner. Where possible,
we in Prague try to ensure that the person doing the explaining does so in a language that is completely unknown by the Virgin, but everything is
pretty clear anyway!
There are songs sung before each 'punishment' is dished out. These songs can range from extremely tame, such as 'This is your down down song, it
isn't very long'... to extremely vulgar, and obviously if children are present then the nicer songs are almost always used instead of the not so
nice ones as a sign of respect. Similarly, there are songs that are quite sexual in nature sometimes, but these songs can be degrading to either men
or women. In the Hash we're nothing if not equal opportunity abusers!
As stated earlier, nobody is forced to participate in the Circle, and some people like to come and do the trail and then go straight home rather than
listen to the songs, and again, nobody has any problem with them doing this. People might also choose to sit out the Circle because it's getting too
cold for them, (especially older Hashers), or for other reasons, but most people look forwards to 10 or 15 minutes of stupidity at the end of a trail
before rejoining civil society on Monday morning.
There are also a couple of other notable things that might happen in a Circle, such as someone being Named or someone having a birthday and being
silly enough to inform everyone else about it. I'll start with the names, as that aspect seems to have caused a little controversy earlier...
A Naming is an important part of the Hash tradition, and is without doubt one of the things that makes the Hash look Cult-like to outsiders. Naming's
can occur on somebody's first Hash, but generally we take a little time to get to know people better first. Some kennels like to make Names as vulgar
as possible, others go for Names that sound a little dodgy but are in reality quite tame, (such as fairly recently Named Hashers in Prague called
'Gobbles Wet and Salty' and 'Indecent Descent').
Names are not given freely, and they have to be earned by the Hashers, usually by them doing or saying something really stupid in front of everyone
else. When a Naming is being considered, the person who is to be named will be called into the Circle, and then everyone calls out their own ideas for
potential Names. Once there are three or four decent options, a vote is taken, and the most popular Name wins.
This is then given to the Hasher by the Religious Advisor, who may pour beer and flour over said person if it's available, or may choose NOT to do
this if the person in question has made a request that they not end the day in a sticky mess out in the middle of nowhere when they have no change of
clothes. As stated a few times, everything in the Hash is 100% voluntary, and nobody gets mistreated in any way, shape or form if they are not
comfortable with what's going on.
As for birthday's, if someone is silly enough to announce that it's their birthday, the Hashers will present them with a full birthday cake, or the
ingredients for one anyway, on their head!
The Hash House Harriers is, quite simply, a Drinking Club with a Running Problem. It's a chance for people from all walks of life to get together,
have some fun, blow off some steam, and then go back to normalcy a day later. Some drink to excess, some drink nothing. Some chapters are more vulgar
than others, and some chapters do 40km runs while others do 5km runs.
There are more than 2500 Hash Kennels around the world, so pretty much regardless of where you are in the world at any given time, this is an easy and
simple way to meet new friends right away, and know that they share some of your interests.
They also, as has been stated previously, raise a LOT of money for charity, mainly by having Red Dress Runs, where everybody, regardless of whether
male or female, will run a short trail wearing a Red Dress. One of the most popular of these is in San Diego, where the tradition started, and these
runs have raised hundreds of millions for charity since the Inaugural Run in 1988. There is an article about this here;
Should anyone wish to try Hashing for themselves, look up your local chapter and give them a try. Some chapters are wild, some are child friendly, and
others hover somewhere in between the two. Since I started Hashing I've personally introduced more than 50 people into this wacky world, and only two
of them didn't have fun :-)
And if you don't want to risk doing it locally, come over to Prague and join in with us. We run every Sunday, although most of us actually walk