A unique wedding festivity was held in the southern city of Bengaluru in India as two donkeys tied the knot on February 14, Valentine’s Day, reports Reuters.
Two donkeys, named ‘Sundaranga’ and ‘Saundaryavati’ were united by activists in a unique wedding ceremony in Bengaluru. Their belief is to celebrate love on Valentine’s Day among all living creatures.
This is not the first wedding event of a pair of donkeys being held in parts of India, however. In 2019, the people in an area of Hyderabad staged the wedding of two donkeys when they had a weak monsoon season. They prayed to the rain God to have mercy on them.
We performed similar marriage four years ago and as a result of that we had abundant rains that year. There were no sufficient rains for the past two years and even grass is not there on the ground. We performed the marriage as per tradition, a resident said.
According to him, they believe donkeys marriage will cause rains as in “Dwapar Yug, Lord Krishna’s father Vasudev touched donkeys feet to overcome troubles”.
The donkeys’ marriage is celebrated with all the traditional rituals in India. The male donkey is decorated with garlands and a dhoti and the female wears a saree, silver anklets, and garlands. They also apply vermillion on the foreheads of both the animals. The marriage ceremony consists of all the traditional formalities like humans marriage. The people make two groups and take “bride and bridegroom” in a procession where young children dance burst firecrackers, and adults exchange new clothes.
A priest recites the Vedic mantras for the marriage, including garlanding of the donkeys. The “mangalasutram” is tied, ‘jeelakarra and bellam’ are applied on the head and ‘thalambralu’ is poured with colorful beads.
A large number of people attend and exchange sweets with each other after the marriage.
Video by Reuters.
