Monday or the day of
moon is milestone in the datebook of different religion. The Jews read Torah,
their foundational text in the morning of Monday while Hindus go for fasting to
please Lord Shiva. It is said that the Orthodox Church observes it as an
angel’s day. The Theravada Buddhist celebrates Monday as a day of dispelling
fear. It was said that Buddha’s relatives were disputing on the water rights
which when he returned from heaven on the day of moon persuaded them to
compromise. So, keeping in mind on about the overlapping of such religious
events on Monday and moreover being it the first day of week, we need to do
something different than our normal routine. To begin the week with meat free
meals would be interesting indeed.
History reads that during World War I, the US government received a word of honor signed by 13.0 million civilians in support of ‘Meatless Monday’ and ‘Wheat less Wednesday’ with a common target to aid the war by lessening the consumption of rations. This movement was revived in 2003 as public health awareness and is supported by 36 nations. In Bhutan, Meatless Monday is known as ‘Jangsem Monday’ which literally is a Bodhicitta day. In 2009, Meat Free Monday campaign was launched to address damaging impact of eating meat to the global climate change. As of now there are more than 0.8 million registered supporters from different walks of life.(To, be continued)
