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The Hash House Harriers today is an international group of drinking and running clubs. The original group was founded in 1938 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by: Albert Stephen Ignatius Gispert "G", Cecil Lee, Frederick "Horse" Thomson, and Ronald "Torch" Bennett, as a casual group who would meet after work on Monday evenings to run, following a paper trail, through the environs of Kuala Lumpur to get rid of the excesses of the previous weekend. The organization of the Hash House Harriers is completely decentralized, with chapters (also commonly called kennels) allowed to form and disband at any time and in any place. It has more than 1700 groups, with at least one Hash in virtually every major city in the world. The template for a hash run is for one or more hashers to lay out a running trail, which may include false trails, and for the rest of the members to try follow the trail to a cache of beer. How it is done Hashing hasn't strayed far from its Kuala Lumpur roots. A typical hash kennel (local chapter or group) today is a loosely-organized group of 20-100 men and women (aka Harriers and Harriettes) who meet weekly or bi-weekly to follow a trail laid by a hare (the person(s) leading the trail who leaves the appropriate marks on the ground, trees etc. for the pack to follow). Not all groups are co-ed, though, and some chapters in major metropolitan areas have well more than 100 hashers at an event. While strips of paper have previously been used to mark trail, it has generally been replaced with flour or chalk and toilet paper sometimes used in off-road areas that would make the other marks difficult to see. Generally any mark used to mark trail is called a 'hash mark'. In tropical areas such as Brunei and Indonesia, different colored paper is used due to wet conditions, while powdered chalk or chalk tinted flour can be employed in snowy conditions. Trails may be "live" where the hare gets the head start (often 5-10 minutes) from the pack, or "dead" where it will be laid in advance of the pack. Live trails - while closer to the original Hare and Hounds tradition mentioned in Tom Brown's Schooldays, are more common in the USA, while the rest of the world tends towards "dead" or pre-laid trails. The choice of Live or Dead trails is a subject of much controversy on the various hash-related discussion groups. There may be one or more "beer stops" or "beer checks" along the way with the hare either pre-caching a cooler of beer, or having the trail go to a prearranged meeting spot with the beer truck which is generally a personal vehicle that someone is using to transport a keg or cooler of drinks, snacks, and beer along with the hash's gear. With a "live" trail, the general intent of the pack is to attempt to catch the 'hare' before they finish the trail and get to the end. In efforts to do this, some pack members might 'range', or go off trail if they can guess where the hare may go, in attempts to head off the hare. Generally such a form of athleticism is frowned on by some of the more socially minded kennels. A trail marking of the Brisbane Hash House Harriers. This marking is a few days old, and thus, slightly harder to see than when the actual hash occurred.To make the run interesting, the hare can set the trail through literally any kind of terrain with only the imagination being the limitation. The trails can go through residential areas, forests, or swamps with anything off-road generally called 'shiggy'. Such shiggy might be classified in levels with the first being a path through a park or dirt road while the last might have the pack going through a quarter mile of chest deep, shoe-sucking swamp. The pack never knows where a trail will go or where it may lead and are often advised to bring a change of clothes and shoes to be used after the trail is complete. A trail may be an 'A to A' where the start and ending location are in the same place or an 'A to B' where the start and end are at different spots. Hashers may run through streets, back alleyways, or shopping malls, ford streams, climb fences, explore storm drains, run through huge jungles and scale cliffs. And although some (but perhaps very few) of today's health-conscious hashers may shun a cold beer in favor of water or a diet soda, a trail's end is still a party. Often the hare will employ several tricks in attempts to slow the pack and to keep runners and walkers together. The hare may mark an intersection generally called a 'check' that signifies that the trail continues within a 360 degree area from that point. Several false trails may lead from that check and it is up to the front runners to 'solve' the trail by going out and determining what might actually be the correct path, or 'true trail'. Once the true way has been determined then that runner may mark the check to indicate the proper direction so that anyone to come up it later (such as the walker, other runners, or anyone arriving late) will not have to figure it out all over again. The pack will generally carry whistles, horns, or other audible means of communicating in order to assist each other on trail and keep from getting lost. A member of the pack calling out 'Are you?' means to know if another individual is searching for the true trail, typically near a check (or intersection), or is on the correct path. Someone will typically call out either 'Checking!' to indicate that they are looking for the trail or 'On-On', or blow their whistle or horn three times, to signify that they are on the true trail and that the pack should follow them. A false trail may be marked one of several ways including a 'bad trail' mark consisting of three parallel lines, a mark of 'YBF' (short for 'You've been fooled' or 'You've been F**ked'), or a mark of 'CB #' (Count back with some number). The first two marks indicate that the runner must return to the most recent check point and then attempt to find the trail again. The 'count back' would mean that the runner must count back the indicated number of hash marks and then use that point to look for the next hash mark that might be hidden behind a tree, light pole, car tire, etc. An arrow on the ground with three parallel lines through it is known as a 'true trail arrow' and signifies to the pack that they are on the real trail and are not following some fake or bad trail. Other signs used might include a 'BN' that means there is a beer stop nearby, 'BS' signifying that the runner is now at the beer stop and should either look for the stashed beverages nearby or wait for the beer truck to arrive (depending on the instructions given by the hare before the start of trail), or 'HH' that is a 'hash halt' command that tells the runners that they must wait until at least the first of the walkers show up so that the hare might have a bit more time to get ahead. Every Hash has its own set of marks and even names for these marks, so Hashers visiting another pack should check the local signs before the run. At trail's end hashers gather to drink beer and observe so-called religious ceremonies, the 'Circle', which consists of drinking more beer; this time ritualistically. Circles may be led by the hash Grandmaster, the group's Religious Adviser, or by a committee of mismanagement. Traditions and the degree of rowdiness vary from hash to hash, but in general the Circle consists of awarding "Down-Downs" for misdemeanors real, imagined, or blatantly made up, and the recipients will most likely have been dobbed in by their fellow hashers. Generally all the activities will include some level of singing of what are best described as drinking songs as would be heard in an old pub, rugby match, fraternity party, or other such social gathering. At the conclusion of the 'Circle', the hashers may head to an 'On-After or On-On-On' which may be at a nearby restaurant or pub for grub and libations with which to wash it down. This is the social part of the hash, and the party may last from one hour to several hours, as they tell stories, have fun, and enjoy everyone's company. |
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