the history of the hash house harriers
The Hash originates in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where it was first held in 1938. Today it counts more than 120 chapters, located all over the world: in the United States, the Netherlands, the Far East and in Africa. Asia still counts the most chapters.
The founder of the Hash, as is commonly accepted, was a Scot, G.S. Gispert, who was a member of the famous sportsclub of Kuala Lumpur, Eelangor. On a Monday, after a wild party, Gispert decided to rid himself of the excesses of the weekend and to sweat it all out by running through the padang. He started to make it a habit and soon others joined him.
But, as life has it, not much was left over from his good intensions (to rid himself of excesses, if you remember !). At the end of the padang there was a petite Chinese restaurant, known as the "Hash House". The owner of the restaurant developed the habit of awaiting Gispert and the thursty hashers with a nice cold beer at the end of the "run". Keeping it to just only one beer was a tough job and soon a second nice cold beer was awaiting to be consumed... More and more hashers joined the "run". By this time every Monday was baptised as the hash day.
The clever Chinese restaurant owner did not want to loose his clientele and followed the group with his truck full of cold beer at the finish to accomodate all those thursty hashers.The name "Hash House Harriers" thus was born and has remained.
Harriers who left Kuala Lumpur started their own chapter of the "Hash House Harriers" in other countries and became the founders of "Hashes" which in turn spread all over the world, also to Paramaribo