the case of the scared thread

today's janai purnima, the day of the scared thread! yes, 'scared thread'. at least that's what i learned from the front page of today's kathmandu post. i always thought it was the festival of the sacred thread. but who can argue with nepal's leading daily? if the post says the thread is scared, it is scared! here's what the photo caption read:

A brahmin priest preparing Janai, scared thread, for Janai Purnima festival at Lalitpur's Kumbeshwor temple premises, on Thursday.

so my mission today was to find out: who scared the thread?

first i questioned the priest, who insisted that the thread he was tying around my wrist was a sacred thread that protects the 'wearer', and not some cowardly thread. he found my suggestion ludicrous and laughed heartily at my expense. ohhh... evil priests!

next stop: my cousin's. the elders were all amused by my question and believed it was just a misprint by the kathmandu post. but i refuse to believe that such a reputed daily will have a typo in a photo caption on it's front page!

my 7 year old cousin offered to help. he suggested a wrestling match up. i didn't know how that would answer my question but i believed he knew what he was doing. so we wrestled... was a lot of fun actually. boy, does he know his moves! so in the end we lay on the floor exhausted, out of breath... but i was no closer to the answer.

i gave up in the end and decided to write to kathmandu post itself. i haven't received any replies yet... ohh.. i don't think they'll answer... probably too busy with important stuff.

but curiosity is killin me... someone tell me plzzzzz..... why was the thread scared???