West Bengal farmers fight bad monsoon with frog marriage
KOLKATA (Reuters) - Indian farmers are falling back on a trusted local method to bring badly needed monsoon rains -- marrying off two frogs.
Villagers in West Bengal pooled their money together this week to marry Ram and Sita, two frogs named after India's most revered mythological couple from the epic Ramayana.
Following an ancient Hindu belief, the frogs' heads were smeared with vermilion paint and the pair were held up in the air in a ritual in front of a traditional clay candle.
"We feted about 3,000 villagers and solemnised the marriage with every single ritual," Shobin Ray, head of a local council in Madhya Baragari village, about 750 km (470 miles) north of state capital Kolkata, told Reuters by phone.
The women at the wedding fasted beforehand and then invited the river to join the ceremony and give its blessing, as is customary in Bengali tradition, he said.
India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.
(Additional reporting by Rupak De Chowdhuri)
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