A wedding ceremony for two frogs was held on Tuesday in the city of Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, as part of a custom to please Indra, the Hindu god of rains, and bring rainfall to the drought-hit region.
Scores of people converged at the Kalibari Temple to witness and participate in a special marriage ceremony organized by a local group called Hindu Mahasangh.
Villagers in India's Uttar Pradesh Get Frogs Married to Invoke Rains During Monsoon
© Sputnik / Sputnik
Ramakant Verma, a member of Hindu Mahasangh, told Indian news agency PTI, that the entire area was facing a drought-like situation.
"Last week, we performed Hawan Pujan (Yajna or the Hindu fire ritual performed on special occasions by Hindu priests)... Now we organised the marriage of a pair of frogs. We hope the ritual will work, and we will have rain in the area," Verma said.
The people present during the wedding were optimistic that the ritual would work and bring respite from the scorching heat of the summer.
In a separate incident, on July 13, a group of women in the Maharajganj district soaked local legislator Jaimangal Kanojiya and civic authority Nagar Palika chairman Krishna Gopal Jaiswal in a mud tub. Their objective was to please Lord Indra with the gesture.
According to the India Meteorological Department (IMD), Uttar Pradesh has witnessed a "large deficient" of rainfall. Between June 1 and July 15, the state received barely 77.3 millimeters of rainfall, which is 65 percent less than the 220 millimeters expected for this duration.
In IMD terminology, a rainfall deficit between minus 60 to minus 99 is considered a "large deficient."
Ironically, in 2019 another pair of frogs were "divorced" in Madhya Pradesh two months into their "happily ever after" in order to stop incessant rains.
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